National Patent Public Welfare Program provides services and hope underrepresented inventors
The Patent Benefit Initiative’s Pathways to Inclusive Innovation event, held April 12 at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, has roots stretching back 14 years and some 1,100 miles north.
A 2010 luncheon in Minneapolis between two prominent patent professionals sparked thoughtful consideration that ultimately became an invaluable and historic resource for financially strapped inventors.
When Jim Patterson, an attorney with more than 30 years of experience in intellectual property law, met with then-USPTO Director David Kappos, they began talking about pro bono work. Today, the USPTO partners with 20 independently operated academic and nonprofit regional programs in patent public benefit programs. These regional programs match economically under-resourced inventors with patent practitioners in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
Patterson, who lives in Minnesota, has volunteered with pro bono legal projects since the beginning of his career, including working on landlord and family law issues at a downtown clinic.
After lunch with Couples, he received a call from John Calvert of the USPTO’s Office of Innovation Development and asked pro bono expert Candy Goodman (then of Lindquist & Vennum) for help.
Goodman was instrumental in establishing Minnesota’s pilot pro bono inventor assistance program. This initiative is facilitated by LegalCORPS, a non-profit entity dedicated to providing clients who cannot afford commercial legal services greater access to the legal system.
“A week later we got a call saying the project had been approved and we were on our way,” Patterson told BIG IP & Legal Solutions in an interview.
But first, there are countless critical details to iron out: securing funding, establishing processes and procedures, promoting the program, and more.
Patterson noted that an important element of this or any pro bono program for inventors is ensuring that their project is worth the attorney’s time.
“If you open the door liberally to independent inventors, you’ll see all kinds of interesting people, but very few good ideas,” he told Big IP & Legal Solutions. “We know that if we are going to ask attorneys to give up their time, we need to ensure that the candidates they are going to meet with are appropriately screened.”
It is also important to establish the parameters for accessing the program.
“If we start giving free advice to people who might be paying solicitors, then we’re just taking clients away from volunteers. So we need to set a threshold at which you start paying.
“It can cost between $50,000 and $10,000 to obtain a patent. When you screen for financial need, there is a big gap with poverty levels.”
The team identified a cutoff of about three times the national poverty line, a formula that most such programs still use.
Sure enough, the USPTO’s Patent Public Interest page lists the requirements for applicants:
“While each regional program in the national network may have different admissions guidelines, generally speaking, these are common requirements:
Income – Your total household income should be less than three times the federal poverty level guidelines (although some area programs may have different standards)
Knowledge – Demonstrate understanding of the patent system through a provisional application filed with the USPTO or successful completion of a certificate training course (certificado de formación en español)
Inventions – The ability to describe the specific features of your invention and how it works. “
The USPTO Gratuitous Patent Program was launched in 2011 as part of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. America’s first and only federally funded public benefit program has changed the lives of thousands of people, from inventors who would otherwise never realize their ideas to those who benefit from their inventions.
Some of these inventions have the potential to save lives, including a carbon monoxide detector produced by a free connection (U.S. Patent No. 10,101,027). The “System and Method for Stopping Carbon Monoxide Production” invented by Mark Kohn was patented on October 16, 2018.
The Patent Benefit Program is particularly helpful to two historically underrepresented patent populations: women and African Americans. A 2022 survey of applicants using patent pro bono programs showed that 35% of respondents were African American or Black and 43% were women.
For more information about the path to inclusive innovation and to register: https://bit.ly/3T8BnBP
More information about the Patent Benefit Program: uspto.gov/ProBonoPatents