Promoting Gender Diversity at the U.S. Patent Bar

World Intellectual Property Review interviewed Finnegan partner Linda Thayer for her thoughts on gender diversity at the U.S. patent bar. Earlier this year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) released statistics showing the gender breakdown of who qualified for the patent bar exam under the various categories. The statistics revealed that 75% of candidates qualified under category A (having one of 32 specific bachelor’s degrees covering technical expertise such as biology, physics, chemical engineering and microbiology); 25% qualified under category B (having a non-listed bachelor’s degree, but having taken sufficient semester hours in physics, chemistry, biology, botany, microbiology, molecular biology, or engineering); and less than 1% under category C (having practical engineering or scientific experience). Of those who qualified under category A, 67% were men and 32% were women.

Linda said, “It appears more women had to qualify under the more onerous category B. It seems fairly obvious that women had to do so because their degrees were more frequently not among the category A-approved degrees. That they were ultimately successful under category B shows that their field of study was, in the end, found worthy, but they had to jump through more hoops to show it.” She added, “How many women may have been turned off by the additional requirements and decided not to apply? We may never know.”

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