As a women-owned intellectual property firm, McCoy Russell has been examining the participation of women as inventors and presenting on the gender and minority gap in inventorship, patent prosecution, and VC funding for women founders nationally and local in Portland. The firm not only brings to light the benefits of diverse teams and roadblocks in the patent system, but also shares remedies at the organizational level, investor level, and individual level, focusing on culture, support, and self-identity.
The firm has provided presentations and training to numerous groups and clients, dating back to 2019 just two years after the McCoy Russell’s inception. After 4 years of efforts, we are gaining traction and are pleased to see that our ideas have even reached Meta.
Ideas such as:
- Developing a more uniform network of support for innovation teams.
- Generating teams that include women within the innovation discussions and innovation directions (brainstorming) as a company focus and providing women leadership opportunities for women to participate and lead innovation discussions.
- Fostering Idea Generation via brainstorming sessions or as Meta calls them “Invention Sessions” not only provides an organized discussion, but creates alternate forums for pre-input and discussion creating group and individual action items.
- Meta’s conclusion of getting more people comfortable with the patent process aligns with the heart of McCoy Russell’s diversity aware training IP prosecution programs.
At McCoy Russell LLP, we know that innovation thrives when diverse approaches and philosophies are nurtured in the workplace.
As a longtime advocate for women inventorship, McCoy Russell hopes to see an uptick for women inventors as larger originations like Meta start to adopt practices to support women and other minorities at each stage of the innovation process.
If your organization would like to implement some of the ideas we provided and ideas used by Meta’s team, McCoy Russell is available to provide training, lead brainstorming, and support the innovation lifecycle.
