Black, Hispanic Women Less Apt to Get U.S. Patents Than Whites

Women of color, particularly black and Hispanic women, are less likely to obtain U.S. patent rights than white women and men, even as they are leading in the growth of new female-owned businesses over the last two decades, according to a new study.

“The data show that people of color are particularly unlikely to hold intellectual property,” the Institute of Women’s Policy Research, a Washington think tank, said in a report released July 24. Overall, less than 19 percent of patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had a female inventor listed, according to the most recent ...