Inventors and Patents From the City of Roseville

According to the Center for Intellectual Property & Entrepreneurship, the longest period between an application and its grant was 686 days in Roseville. However, that does not mean that a patent is a guarantee of success. Among the inventors granted patents this year, two were from Roseville.

Small-time inventors account for 15% of all U.S. patents

It’s not only women and minorities who are underrepresented as inventors, but also children from lower-income backgrounds. By the time they turn 18, only one-fifth of children from lower-income families will go on to become inventors. While there are several reasons for this imbalance, there are some policies that can reduce inequality and promote growth.

Exposure to innovation is a powerful predictor of invention. In fact, children who grow up in high-innovation areas are more likely to become inventors than those from low-innovation neighborhoods. However, exposure effects appear to be class and gender specific, with children from lower-income families less likely to become innovators than those from higher-income families.

The sample was based on 1980-1984 birth cohorts. Children were assigned to college most frequently by age 19-22. The methodology was developed by Chetty et al. (2017), and they published their findings in appendix C. In Panel A, the proportion of children who became inventors by 2014 is plotted against the parental income percentile. In the data, “children” are defined as children who were listed as inventors on a patent application between 2001 and 2012 or granted a patent between 1996 and 2014.

The study concludes that lack of exposure prevents many individuals from going on to a career in innovation. These individuals would otherwise have created highly effective innovations. Thus, the inclusion of more minority and underrepresented children in the innovation pipeline can have an enormous effect on the number of innovators and the number of high-impact inventions.

The study shows that gender, race, and socioeconomic class are highly related to the number of patents awarded to small-time inventors. Children born to parents in the upper-income 1% of the income distribution are about ten times more likely to become inventors than children born in lower-income families. A large proportion of these individuals are men.

Patents are an important incentive for innovators. They encourage companies to invest billions of dollars into R&D for innovative products and services. Without patents, these companies would be faced with a competitive environment where their products or services would likely be duplicated by a competitor. Additionally, patents protect a company’s intellectual property and provide the company with bragging rights.

The USPTO receives over 500,000 patent applications a year and grants over 300,000 patents. It employs more than 11,000 people, of which about seventy-five percent are patent examiners. The remaining employees work in the legal and technical areas.

Although racial differences are a key factor in innovation, test scores can only explain a small part of the gap. For instance, the black-white gap shrinks from 1.1 to 1.0, and the white-Asian gap falls from 9% to 1%.

The longest time between a patent being filed and being granted in Roseville was 686 days

The time between filing a patent application and receiving a patent grant varies depending on the technical area of the application. Non-provisional patent applications, for example, can take longer to process because the USPTO puts them into a queue.

The time between filing for a patent and receiving a patent can be shortened if the invention is simple and straightforward. The USPTO assigns technical inventions to a special group of examiners, which usually results in a shorter wait. However, there are fees associated with this option. Micro-entities pay a $1,000 application fee, small businesses pay $2,000, and non-profits pay $4,000 for the option.

Depending on the complexity of the invention, the process can take several years. When the longest time between a patent being filed and a patent being granted in Roseville was 686 days, it was estimated that it took 22 months. The length of time depends on a variety of factors, including workload and volume of searches.

Success rates are low

A recent report released by the USPTO revealed that Hispanics, Blacks, and women are underrepresented among inventors. While efforts have been made to address this disparity, progress has been slow. In 2019, a bill was introduced by lawmakers to require the patent office to collect demographic data from applicants and make the information publicly available. However, this bill has yet to be acted upon.

Another reason for the low success rate is that women don’t pursue STEM degrees at the same rate as men, and often do not stay in these fields long enough to become an inventor. Companies also tend to be less aware of who they choose to staff on projects and aren’t as diverse as they should be. Additionally, many women have difficulty presenting their ideas, and aren’t comfortable with self-promotion.