[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4713 Reported in Senate (RS)]
<DOC>
Calendar No. 558
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
November 18, 2024
Reported by Mr. Durbin, without amendment
_______________________________________________________________________
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.''.
Calendar No. 558
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4713
_______________________________________________________________________
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.
_______________________________________________________________________
November 18, 2024
Reported without amendment