A simple intervention significantly improved patent outcomes for women inventors
While innovation is core to American identity, women inventors were named on only 13% of 2019 U.S. patents. In part, that’s because women’s patents are less likely to make it through the examination process. Research by the University of Washington Information School and the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, found that some simple interventions increased the probability that female inventors would get patents by 12%. For first-time applicants, that probability increased to 17%. The study, the first randomized controlled trial of inventors at the USPTO, followed inve