Washington, D.C. (January 5, 2021) — Today, Invent Together’s Executive Director Holly Fechner released the following statement urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve the nomination of Kathi Vidal as Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO):
“Invent Together supports the nomination of Kathi Vidal to lead the USPTO, and we urge Senate Judiciary Committee Members to vote to approve her nomination. Ms. Vidal has decades of experience at the highest levels of the profession, as well as a demonstrated commitment to diversity in the intellectual property ecosystem.
“The USPTO and leading researchers have found large and disturbing patent gaps for women, people of color, and people from lower-income families. Closing these gaps would quadruple the number of American inventors, increase annual U.S. GDP by almost $1 trillion, and result in exciting new and different inventions. The USPTO has taken important steps to understand and address these gaps, and Ms. Vidal has committed to building on these efforts. She has spent her career supporting the advancement of women, people of color, veterans and other underrepresented groups in IP. As she told the Committee, she is committed to making real and meaningful progress, and we look forward to working with her.”
About Invent Together
Invent Together is an initiative supported by organizations, universities, companies, and other stakeholders dedicated to understanding the gender, race, income, and other diversity gaps in invention and patenting and supporting public policy and private efforts to close them.
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