Innovators of all types have shaped many aspects of the world throughout the centuries. However, findings by WIPO and leading researchers show some groups remain severely under-represented in many areas of intellectual property use. All of the data suggests that the world has missed out on millions of inventors.

Maintaining a technical and innovative edge is vital for success in the marketplace and for global economic and technological success. For individual companies, more innovation can lead to increased market share, customer acquisition, employee retention, and more. Increasing Diversity in Innovation is the first step in reaching these goals, and the time for action is now.

Please join us by signing this Diversity Pledge and committing to the following:

Year 1

1. Identify one or more groups of URIs to address, and secure the best available data for each selected URI group (see “Calculation of Metrics” below).
2. Use best efforts to implement and complete at least one of the five parts of the Framework (button below) for each URI group you have chosen to address.
3. Report the following information to the Neutral 3rd Party*:
   1. the URI group(s) you have chosen to address and; 
   2. the best practice(s) you began and completed in this year (as per the Completion Criteria below).

Year 2

1. Report the following information to the Neutral 3rd Party*:
   1. the URI group(s) you have chosen to address and; 
   2. the best practice(s) you began and completed in this year (as per the Completion Criteria below).

Year 3

1. In year 3, use best efforts to provide the following two metrics to the Neutral 3rd Party* for the period Years 1-3 (see “Calculation of Metrics” below):
   1. Inventorship Rate for a specific URI group = # of Unique Underrepresented Inventors on Patent Applications) ÷ (Total # of Unique Inventors on Patent Applications)
   2. Fractional Inventorship Rate for a specific URI group (e.g., average percentage of URIs per patent application in each calendar year) = Sum of % of URIs per Patent Application) ÷ (Total # of Patent Applications)

Calculation of Metrics

You can calculate the above metrics using your own internal data (for your organization’s patent inventors and selected URI group) OR publicly available tools. For example, there are several free tools that can be used to assign gender to inventor names, including the methodology used by the US Patent Office.

• IBM’s Global Name Recognition system
• The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) worldwide gender-name dictionary
• Richardson Oliver Gender Name Estimator– a tool for estimating the gender of the inventors on patents

Frequently asked questions 

• The Neutral 3rd Party is Richardson Oliver Insights LLC.