IDEA Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4394 To amend chapter 11 of title 35, United States Code, to require the voluntary collection of demographic information for patent inventors, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JULY 30, 2020 Ms. HIRONO (for herself, Mr. TILLIS, and Mr. COONS) introduced the fol- lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To amend chapter 11 of title 35, United States Code, to require the voluntary collection of demographic informa- tion for patent inventors, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Inventor Diversity for 4 Economic Advancement Act of 2020’’ or the ‘‘IDEA Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:07 Aug 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4394.IS S4394 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4394 IS SEC. 2. COLLECTION OF DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION FOR 1 PATENT INVENTORS. 2 (a) AMENDMENT.—Chapter 11 of title 35, United 3 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol- 4 lowing: 5 ‘‘§ 124. Collection of demographic information for 6 patent inventors 7 ‘‘(a) VOLUNTARY COLLECTION.—The Director shall 8 provide for the collection of demographic information, in- 9 cluding gender, race, military or veteran status, and any 10 other demographic category that the Director determines 11 appropriate, related to each inventor listed with an appli- 12 cation for patent, that may be submitted voluntarily by 13 that inventor. 14 ‘‘(b) PROTECTION OF INFORMATION.—The Director 15 shall— 16 ‘‘(1) keep any information submitted under sub- 17 section (a) confidential and separate from the appli- 18 cation for patent; and 19 ‘‘(2) establish appropriate procedures to en- 20 sure— 21 ‘‘(A) the confidentiality of any information 22 submitted under subsection (a); and 23 ‘‘(B) that demographic information is not 24 made available to examiners or considered in 25 the examination of any application for patent. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:07 Aug 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4394.IS S4394 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4394 IS ‘‘(c) RELATION TO FEDERAL INFORMATION POLICY 1 LAW.—Subchapter I of chapter 35 of of title 44 shall not 2 apply to the collection of demographic information under 3 subsection (a). 4 ‘‘(d) PUBLICATION OF DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMA- 5 TION.— 6 ‘‘(1) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than Jan- 7 uary 31 of each year, the Director shall make pub- 8 licly available a report that, except as provided in 9 paragraph (3)— 10 ‘‘(A) includes the total number of patent 11 applications filed during the previous year 12 disaggregated— 13 ‘‘(i) by demographic information de- 14 scribed in subsection (a); and 15 ‘‘(ii) by technology class number, 16 technology class title, country of residence 17 of the inventor, and State of residence of 18 the inventor in the United States; 19 ‘‘(B) includes the total number of patents 20 issued during the previous year disaggregated— 21 ‘‘(i) by demographic information de- 22 scribed in subsection (a); and 23 ‘‘(ii) by technology class number, 24 technology class title, country of residence 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:07 Aug 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4394.IS S4394 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4394 IS of the inventor, and State of residence of 1 the inventor in the United States; and 2 ‘‘(C) includes a discussion of the data col- 3 lection methodology and summaries of the ag- 4 gregate responses. 5 ‘‘(2) DATA AVAILABILITY.—In conjunction with 6 issuance of the report under paragraph (1), the Di- 7 rector shall make publicly available data based on 8 the demographic information collected under sub- 9 section (a) that, except as provided in paragraph 10 (3), allows the information to be cross-tabulated to 11 review subgroups. 12 ‘‘(3) PRIVACY.—The Director— 13 ‘‘(A) may not include personally identifying 14 information in— 15 ‘‘(i) the report made publicly available 16 under paragraph (1); or 17 ‘‘(ii) the data made publicly available 18 under paragraph (2); and 19 ‘‘(B) in making publicly available the re- 20 port under paragraph (1) and the data under 21 paragraph (2), shall anonymize any personally 22 identifying information related to the demo- 23 graphic information collected under subsection 24 (a). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:07 Aug 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4394.IS S4394 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 4394 IS ‘‘(e) BIENNIAL REPORT.—The Director shall submit 1 to Congress a biennial report that evaluates the data col- 2 lection process under this section, ease of access to the 3 information by the public, and recommendations on how 4 to improve data collection.’’. 5 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 6 The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 11 of 7 title 35, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 8 end the following: 9 ‘‘124. Collection of demographic information for patent inventors.’’. (c) DEADLINE FOR BIENNIAL REPORT.—Not later 10 than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, and 11 every 2 years thereafter, the Under Secretary of Com- 12 merce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United 13 States Patent and Trademark Office shall submit to Con- 14 gress the biennial report required under section 124(e) of 15 title 35, United States Code, as added by subsection (a). 16 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:07 Aug 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S4394.IS S4394 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS