AUTM Updates

USPTO Announces National Strategy for Inclusive Innovation, Uses AUTM Resources for Guidance

This week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced, in conjunction with the agency’s work with the Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI2), a new National Strategy for Inclusive Innovation. The Strategy’s goal is to grow the economy, create quality jobs, and address global challenges by increasing participation in STEM, inventorship, and innovation among those from historically underrepresented and underresourced communities.  This strategy is built upon four Cornerstones, each of which is essential to maximizing American prosperity. The Cornerstones include:

  • Addressing K-12 educational disparities and the need to inspire youth of all backgrounds to become innovators
  • Focusing on post-secondary educational disparities for students and faculty
  • Promoting inclusiveness in organizations
  • Increasing, for all Americans, commercialization opportunities for innovations

The fourth Cornerstone and its recommendations are of particular interest to AUTM as it addresses bringing innovation to the market and bolstering economic growth while providing more access to technology transfer resources.

Recommendation 8 includes the need to cultivate innovation more broadly and equitably in organizations that innovate and looks to opportunities like mentorship, internships and career coaching to support equitable growth. The AUTM Women Inventor’s Toolkit is shared as a resource for best practices to help tech transfer offices (TTOs) become hubs for mentorship and networking among underrepresented STEM researchers.

Recommendation 11 hopes to leverage and expand commercialization support and tech transfer for all to address systemic issues and inequality among inventors. Within the recommendation AUTM and similar organizations are tasked to train and ramp up universities new to the commercialization process, including historically Black colleges and universities, tribal colleges and universities, and minority serving institutions.
Additionally, TTOs are encouraged to provide innovation literacy training to build department specific innovation education opportunities for faculty and graduate students. A starting point for this training could be the AUTM Basics of Technology Transfer for University Faculty and Research Staff.

CI2 was created from the USPTO’s 2018 SUCCESS Act (a bill supported by AUTM). The Act then reported to Congress in 2019, which found that women and minorities are underrepresented as inventors and as patentees named on U.S.-granted patents. Based on the report findings the USPTO launched a high-level council of industry, academic, professional, and government leaders tasked with helping support a national strategy for increased participation of underrepresented groups in innovation—as inventors, entrepreneurs, and innovation leaders. AUTM CEO Steve Susalka has served as a member of CI2 since its inception.