Resources for Increasing Participation and Transparency in Patenting

Patenting processes are often unclear, making it difficult for employees to know when an idea, process, or product should be patented or how they might go about doing so. These difficulties are exacerbated for women and other underrepresented patent filers who often lack access to informal networks that typically help people navigate this labyrinth.

The good news is that by making these processes more transparent, companies can increase the participation of women and other underrepresented groups in patenting. Diversifying patenting in this way also can increase visibility, retention and advancement of underrepresented employees, while also improving company innovation and capturing intellectual property.

Use these resources to help managers encourage invention and innovation for all employees and to help build a stronger patent-procurement process for your organization overall.

• How Managers Can Encourage Invention and Innovation
• Protect Your Business’s Foundation and Future with a Strong Internal Patent System
• Revitalizing Internal Patent Systems to Expand Idea Protection

Learn how to implement the “The Action to Catalyze Tech (ACT) Report” recommendations: https://ncwit.org/CatalyzeTech.