118 HR 9455 IH: Inventor Diversity for Economic Advancement Act of 2024 U.S. House of Representatives 2024-09-03 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I118th CONGRESS2d SessionH. R. 9455IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESSeptember 3, 2024Ms. Velázquez (for herself and Mrs. Kim of California) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the JudiciaryA BILLTo amend chapter 11 of title 35, United States Code, to require the voluntary collection of demographic information for patent inventors, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Inventor Diversity for Economic Advancement Act of 2024 or the IDEA Act.

2.

Collection of demographic information for patent inventors

(a)

Amendment

Chapter 11 of title 35, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

124.

Collection of demographic information for patent inventors

(a)

Voluntary collection

The Director shall provide for the collection of demographic information, including gender, race, military or veteran status, and any other demographic category that the Director determines appropriate, related to each inventor residing in the United States who is listed with an application for patent, that may be submitted voluntarily by that inventor.(b)

Protection of information

The Director shall—(1)keep any information submitted under subsection (a) confidential and separate from the application for patent; and(2)establish appropriate procedures to ensure—(A)the confidentiality of any information submitted under subsection (a); and(B)that demographic information is not made available to examiners or considered in the examination of any application for patent.(c)

Direct submission by inventors

(1)

In general

In carrying out subsection (a), the Director is authorized to implement a system to collect demographic information directly from an inventor on a voluntary basis.(2)

Avoiding repeated collection

In implementing a system under paragraph (1), the Director shall make reasonable efforts to design the system to avoid repeated collection of the same information from each inventor on subsequent applications for patents.(3)

Collection of contact information

In implementing a system under paragraph (1), the Director shall design the system to capture the information necessary to directly reach inventors.(d)

Relation to other laws

(1)

Freedom of Information Act

Any demographic information submitted under subsection (a) shall be exempt from disclosure under section 552(b)(3) of title 5.(2)

Federal information policy law

Subchapter I of chapter 35 of title 44 shall not apply to the collection of demographic information under subsection (a).(e)

Publication of demographic information

(1)

Report required

Not later than 18 months after the date on which the Director publishes in the Federal Register a notice relating to the demographic information described in subsection (a), in accordance with section 552a(e)(4) of title 5, and not later than January 31 of each year thereafter, the Director shall make publicly available a report that, except as provided in paragraph (3)—(A)includes the total number of patent applications filed during the previous year disaggregated—(i)by demographic information described in subsection (a); and(ii)by technology class number, technology class title, and State of residence of the inventor in the United States;(B)includes the total number of patents issued during the previous year disaggregated— (i)by demographic information described in subsection (a); and(ii)by technology class number, technology class title, and State of residence of the inventor in the United States; and(C)includes a discussion of the data collection methodology and summaries of the aggregate responses.(2)

Data availability

In conjunction with issuance of the report under paragraph (1), the Director shall make publicly available data based on the demographic information collected under subsection (a) that, except as provided in paragraph (3), allows the information to be cross-tabulated to review subgroups.(3)

Privacy

The Director, in making publicly available the report under paragraph (1) and the data under paragraph (2)—(A)subject to subparagraph (B) of this paragraph, shall anonymize any personally identifying information related to the demographic information collected under subsection (a); and(B)may omit any personally identifying information that cannot reasonably be anonymized.(f)

Biennial report

Not later than 2 years after the date on which the Director publishes in the Federal Register a notice relating to the demographic information described in subsection (a), in accordance with section 552a(e)(4) of title 5, and not later than March 31 of every other year thereafter, the Director shall submit to Congress a biennial report that evaluates the data collection process under this section, ease of access to the information by the public, and recommendations on how to improve data collection.

.(b)

Technical and conforming amendment

The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 11 of title 35, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:124. Collection of demographic information for patent inventors..