Male inventors’ edge
HAVING a male-sounding first name is an advantage for would-be inventors, according to Deakin University research.
The study found that an inventor with a male-sounding first name had greater odds of being granted a patent at IP Australia, the government agency that administers intellectual property (IP) rights.
The results are consistent with similar research in the US, where applications to the US Patent and Trademark Office with a female-sounding name were found to be less successful than male-named applicants or those with an undetermined gender.
Lead researcher Dr Vicki Huang, a senior lecturer in IP law at Deakin Law School, said the gender bias uncovered by her team was concerning, given extensive investment worldwide encouraging women into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers.
"While we see more women than men enrolling as undergraduate STEM students, they don’t seem to be crossing the bridge into postgraduate STEM roles and inventorship,” she said.
Dr Huang’s team analysed nearly 400,000 patent applications to IP Australia over a 15year period, and reverseengineered one million inventor names to assign them a probable gender. It found:
90 PER cent of applications had at least one male inventor;
24 PER cent of applications had at least one female inventor (typically via a mixed gender team);
AN inventor with a femalesounding first name had slightly lower odds of getting a patent application approved than a male-named inventor;
AS the number of male names on a team grew, the odds of a successful application increased; and,
THESE patterns were observed irrespective of scientific field, year of application or type of filing.
Dr Huang said securing
patents was one important indicator of success for women in STEM.
"A patent is an intellectual property right and an economic tool,” she said.
“Ultimately the government is giving you a monopoly for 20 years so no one else can copy your invention. It’s one of the most valuable ways you can monetise a new and inventive scientific idea.
"Inventors use patents to secure capital, so fewer women securing patents can mean fewer women succeeding in entrepreneurship.
“Academics and scientists also use patents to show expertise in their field and to progress in their career.
"We know women are just as capable as men, and the quality of patents are the same.
“If women aren’t succeeding at the patent office, we need to find out why and fix it."
Dr Huang believed that the issue was “not as simple as just bias in a handful of patent officers”.
"We suspect there are larger, systematic, and institutional biases that impact women who endeavour to become inventors,” she said.
"The first step to fixing the problem is recognising that a problem exists, which is what we have done in this study.
“We hope our research starts a conversation that causes people to reflect on their own biases and stimulates change."