I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3517 
To amend chapter 11 of title 35, United States Code, to require the voluntary 
collection of demographic information for patent applications, and for 
other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 27, 2017 
Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To amend chapter 11 of title 35, United States Code, to 
require the voluntary collection of demographic informa-
tion for patent applications, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Women Inventor De-
velopment and Equality Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. COLLECTION OF DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION FOR 
PATENT APPLICATIONS. 
(a) AMENDMENT.—Chapter 11 of title 35, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing new section: 
‘‘§ 124. Collection of demographic information for 
patent applications 
‘‘(a) VOLUNTARY COLLECTION.—The Director shall 
provide for the collection of demographic information (in-
cluding gender, race, and ethnicity) related to an inventor 
with an application for patent, that may be submitted vol-
untarily by that inventor. 
‘‘(b) ACCESS
TO INFORMATION.—Any information 
submitted under subsection (a) shall be kept confidential 
and separate from the application for patent. The Director 
shall establish appropriate procedures to ensure the con-
fidentiality of any information submitted under subsection 
(a) and to ensure that demographic information is not in-
cluded when the application for patent is reviewed. 
‘‘(c) PUBLICATION
OF
DEMOGRAPHIC
INFORMA-
TION.— 
‘‘(1) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than Jan-
uary 31 of each year, the Director shall publish a re-
port that includes the following: 
‘‘(A) The total number of patent applica-
tions filed during the previous year disaggre-
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gated by demographic information and by class 
number and title. 
‘‘(B) The total number of patents issued 
during the previous year disaggregated by de-
mographic information and by class number 
and title. 
‘‘(2) PRIVACY.—Any personally identifying in-
formation may not be included in the report de-
scribed in paragraph (1). If any information that is 
required to be included in the report would be per-
sonally identifying information, such information 
shall be excluded from the report. 
‘‘(3) FORMAT.—The report described in para-
graph (1) shall be made available in a format that 
allows the demographic information to be cross-tab-
ulated to review subgroups.’’. 
(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 new item: 
‘‘124. Collection of demographic information for patent applications.’’. 
Æ 
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