[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4713 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4713

  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 11 (legislative day, July 10), 2024

    Ms. Hirono (for herself, Mr. Tillis, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Coons, Mr. 
 Blumenthal, Mr. Padilla, Ms. Klobuchar, and Mr. Grassley) introduced 
the following 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 information for patent inventors, 
                        and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

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

SEC. 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:
``Sec. 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.''.
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