The Inventor’s Patent Academy – A Year in the Innovator’s Toolkit!

Exactly a year ago, I wrote about the launching of The Inventor's Patent Academy?(TIPA) by Invent Together in collaboration with 高通 . This free, online course helps inventors overcome barriers (especially those faced by inventors from underrepresented backgrounds), learn about the US patenting process, and appreciate the prosecution timeline and costs directly from experts and from actual inventors.?

Earlier today, we relaunched the course with updates and improvements that incorporate user feedback and provide an enhanced smartphone experience, updated voice-narration, learning capsules, improved accessibility, additional inventor resources including information on the patent pro-bono program, as well as featuring of a new inventor, Tiffany Norwood , Founder and CEO of Tribetan -the science of turning imagination into reality .

Since its initial launch, I’m proud to note that TIPA has enrolled close to 1200 students. Based on anonymized survey responses (from roughly 2/3rds of participants), 80% are inventors from historically excluded demographics. These include 44% women, 3% non-binary/other, 7% military/veteran, 32% Asian, 19% Black or African American, 11% Hispanic or Latino, and 3% American Indian or Alaskan Native. Notably, two-thirds of the participants have indicated an interest in obtaining a patent to safeguard their inventions.?

Why is it critical to address the issue of representation of?all?inventors in our patenting system? Per research cited by the USPTO's Chief Economist Andrew A Toole , only 12.8 percent of all inventors who obtained a patent in the US are women, and per the USPTO Report to Congress?for the SUCCESS Act, Blacks or African Americans and Hispanics born in the U.S. are significantly underrepresented among innovators (low single digit percentages). A similar global gender gap in patenting is also highlighted in WIPO Postdoc Fellow, Elodie Carpentier 's research. It is estimated that millions of potential American inventors from underrepresented groups are not inventing or patenting, in part, due to a dearth of accessible information and limited early exposure to inventors and inventions. The lack of tailored information about the patenting process coupled with the financial barrier to entry prevents many inventors from patenting their inventions. We designed TIPA to be part of the toolkit that helps people embark on their innovation journeys, by showing potential patentees all they can gain from patenting their invention and what the process looks like from the inventor’s point of view. In crafting this course, we were motivated by the belief that everyone can invent, and every inventor can learn to patent.

Invent Together Executive Director Holly Fechner notes that “the goal of TIPA is to expand access to inventing and patenting, and when we do that, we open new doors to opportunities, spur further innovation, create jobs, grow businesses, close wage, and wealth gaps, and strengthen the U.S. position as a global innovation leader. One year after launch, we are seeing that we are reaching our intended audience, and the improvements to the course will continue to support expanded access to inventing and patenting.”

Several folks contributed to the crafting of the course and to help with its outreach. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity expert,?@Erin Kelley, and Patent Law educator, inventor, and patent agent,?@Dr.Bernie Greenspan, helped update the course content and learning module restructuring in response to hundreds of pieces of feedback we received throughout the year. At launch time, Equity and Leadership expert?@Aiko Bethea provided us with her expert guidance. I was glad to be able to add my inventor, engineering, and worldwide ecosystem support perspective, particularly from supporting startups and women entrepreneurs in other regions through similar endeavors. Tips, advice, and experiential stories from six inventors and patentees are featured throughout the course, to illustrate the key learning points – these six inventors represent not only diverse gender and ethnicity backgrounds but also a wide range of inventing experience and industry categories. The inventors are?@Dr.Maria Artunduaga,?@Katherine Jin,?@Tricia Compass-Markman,?@TJ Falhoun, @Raemonn Soto, and Tiffany Norwood .?

Besides the course authors and featured inventors, I would like to express my gratitude to the TIPA team: Holly Fechner ,?@Morgan Schreurs, Kaitlyn McClure , Khari Cyrus , and several other colleagues at #InventTogether who gave us continuous guidance, course feedback, insight into patenting challenges and barriers and relevant US Govt legislative actions.?@Indra Gardiner?of 62ABOVE and her talented team expertly curated the experiential elements of the course from putting together the multimedia elements, script editing, illustrations and animations, voice-overs, web design, and a thousand and one tasks we didn’t know of when we started! Meanwhile, at Qualcomm,?@Erika Lawson?ably program managed the course through its many phases, while Nate Tibbits ,?@Laurie Self,?@Christine Trimble,?@Joni Laura,?@Christie Thoene,?@Gloria Banuelos, Izzy S. , and Angela Meng , expertly oversaw every step of the process from content creation to reach out to partners. The course wouldn’t have been possible without the executive support and encouragement from Qualcomm’s GC Ann Cathcart Chaplin , President Alex Rogers , and SVP and GM John Han respectively, of the Qualcomm Technology Licensing group that I’m part of. I feel really proud and blessed to work with this can-do and collaborative team over the past two and a half years.

TIPA’s outreach to the target audience would not have been possible without the strong support and cross-linking from several Invent Together partners and other organizations focused on improving inventor diversity in our nation. TIPA has been included by the USPTO as a learning resource for participants in its First-Time Filer Expedited Examination Pilot Program.?To broaden its student reach, Invent Together has also collaborated with Cornell CTL, Jackson State University, Society of Women Engineers, New Jersey Equity in Commercialization Collective, Ohio State University’s Office of Innovation and Economic Development, Houston Community College, Wisconsin Alumni Research Board, Harrity’s Patent Pathways Program, the Small Business Administration’s resource partner, SCORE and the Patent Pro Bono Advisory Council. Meanwhile, at Qualcomm, Kristine Ekwueme and Dr. Gloria (. included TIPA as part of their Qualcomm internal initiatives to augment our own inventor diversity, while Vikram Malhotra , head of Qualcomm's Wireless Academy included TIPA alongside advanced courses on #5g and #ai, and our GC, Ann Chaplin wrote about TIPA as a Creativity Catalyst on IAM. ?

As an engineer at Qualcomm in many customer-facing roles for nearly three decades, I have had the privilege of helping thousands of licensees, customers, startups, and universities launch game-changing products, services, and innovations of their own. These activities have given me a front-row insight into how innovation uplifts inventors and companies small and large throughout the globe. We?invest globally?in helping our customers learn not only about our technologies but also how to protect their own innovations. Such IPR education efforts include?TIPA, launched collaboratively with InventTogether in the US,?Learn to Protect (L2Pro) India?launched collaboratively with India Govt and NLU (where we have enrolled over 5500 students, with expert outreach and support by Dr. Hemang Shah ?? and colleagues), and L2Pro in various countries in?Europe, including?Italy. These resources help pave the way for a new generation of inventors from diverse backgrounds, encouraging further innovation and creation, ideals we value #inclusiveInnovation closely here at Qualcomm.

The enhancements and updates to TIPA will further Qualcomm’s commitment to ensuring the accessibility of the inventing and patenting process for all. We firmly believe that empowering inventors with robust patent rights enables them to transform the world for the benefit of all. I encourage you to take a look at the?TIPA Course and spread the word to a budding inventor!

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