Between 1990 and 2019, the number of female applicants in the U.S. increased by 32%

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is currently releasing a new report titled "Where Are the Women Patent Filers in America?" The report examines female patent filers across the United States from 1990 to 2019. The report identifies the counties with the highest number of female patents by technology field and assesses the growth in the number of female patent applicants over the past 30 years. The report delved into the economic climate of these counties to find factors associated with women's participation in patenting.

Where are the women patent applicants in the US

1990-1992, female inventor-right holders by counties in the United States

During the 30-year period from 1990 to 2019, women inventors filed for patents in 411 counties across the U.S., a 32 percent increase in counties where women filed patents, the report shows.

In every field of technology, more women are granted patents in physics than in any other field, the report shows, and the fastest growing number of female inventors and patent holders is in the power center of Santa Clara County, California, which has grown over the past 30 years More than 7000%. In 1990, only 46 female inventors were included in the electricity industry; by 2019, the number had grown to nearly 3,300. Harris County in Houston, Texas, is the county with the most patent filings by women, with a 2,045 percent increase in the number of female patent filings in the fields of architecture, structures, earth drilling, and related materials over the past 30 years.

1990-2019 Technical Fields with Female Inventor-Original Owners

The report shows that the education level of women in the region is positively correlated with the chance of having female patentees. In counties with female inventor-patent holders, women with a bachelor's degree or higher were 52 percent more educated. The data show that doubling the number of women graduating from college means that a county is 61 percent more likely to have a patent on an invention.

The USPTO plans to use this research and other data to bring more women into the innovation and patent ecosystem, which it believes is critical to job growth and economic prosperity.