118 S4713 IS: Inventor Diversity for Economic Advancement Act of 2024
U.S. Senate
2024-07-11
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II
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4713
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.
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.”.