“Addressing Gender Imbalance in Intellectual Property: Key Takeaways from the UK IPO’s Gender Profiles in Worldwide Patenting Report”

The Intellectual Property (IP) world is grappling with a significant gender imbalance, with men dominating the field, particularly in senior positions. In an effort to address this, IAM recently published the Boston Manifesto, a document outlining strategies to increase the number of women in IP-related careers. However, to tackle this issue effectively, it is crucial to understand the extent of the problem. This is where the UK IP Office’s recent report, Gender profiles in worldwide patenting 2019, proves invaluable.

The 36-page report analyses female inventorship from 1998 to 2017. The BBC highlighted the report’s findings, noting that at the current rate, gender parity in the field would not be achieved until 2070. Here are some key takeaways from the report.

The proportion of female inventors worldwide is growing, albeit modestly. Prior to 1965, the proportion of female inventors was around 2% to 3%. This figure increased to 6.8% in 1998 and 12.7% in 2017.

Over the past two decades, the number of patents with a woman as a named inventor has risen from 13% to 31%. In most cases, female inventors are either working alone or as part of a mixed-gender team. The proportion of patent applications with multiple female inventors has more than doubled, from 2% in 1998 to 4.5% in 2017. This indicates that women are playing an increasingly important role in innovation.

The report also reveals that women contribute to half of all patent applications related to biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and organic fine chemistry. However, female participation is lowest within the mechanical engineering sector.

Interestingly, the majority of all-female teams are composed of two people, while 10% of all-male teams have five or more inventors. Only 1% of all-female teams have that many inventors.

Geographically, France has the highest proportion of patent applications with multiple female inventors, followed by the US and UK. However, the largest proportions of female inventors are found in Asia and Eastern Europe, particularly in countries like China, Romania, Latvia, and Serbia.

The report also highlights the ‘leaky pipeline’ phenomenon, where the proportion of women decreases at each stage of higher education and career progression. Furthermore, a higher proportion of female inventors are associated with academia than with industry.

Dori Hines, Partner at Finnegan, commented on the report, stating, “It is encouraging that the data shows a steady increase in female inventors, especially in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and organic chemical fields. This important study by the UKIPO also highlights for companies and academia that further strides can be made.”

Anna Holmberg, Manager of The Vera Project, an equality and diversity project at Center for Intellectual Property (CIP), added, “Seeing the number of women allowed access to the power positions that comes with that almost double in the last 20 years is good – but it is reasonable to argue that the progress is too slow and that with these low numbers we are still today, in 2019, far from reaching equality.”

Ceyda Maisami, Senior Counsel & Patent Development Director at HP, echoed these sentiments, stating, “We, as leaders in corporations or institutions, carry a huge responsibility to help improve gender parity in innovation within our organisations, so let’s keep talking to raise awareness and collaborating to generate effective solutions.”

The UK IPO’s Gender profiles in worldwide patenting report provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of gender diversity in the IP world. While progress has been made, the report underscores the need for continued efforts to achieve gender parity in this field.