Voluntary Demographic Data Collection for Patent Inventors (IDEA Act).
This Act allows inventors to voluntarily submit demographic information (such as gender and race) when applying for a patent. This data will be kept strictly confidential, separate from the application, and will not influence the patent examination process. The goal is to publish anonymous, aggregated reports to better understand and promote diversity within the U.S. innovation system.
Key points
Inventors can voluntarily provide gender, race, and veteran status information when filing a patent application.
The collected data is confidential, separate from the application, and cannot be used by patent examiners.
The Patent Office will publish annual, anonymized reports detailing diversity among patent applicants and recipients, broken down by technology class and state.
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