The Transition Document especially includes recommendations about Equity, Diversity and Inclusion—a section that Vishnubhakat has amplified in an op-ed on the leading IPWatchdog blog.
In 2019, he jointly authored a public filing to the USPTO with Alexandra Fuchs (’20) and Lora Elkins-Naismith (’21) for the agency’s Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing Engineering and Science Success (SUCCESS) Act. Their joint filing focused specifically on the participation of women in patenting and entrepreneurial activities.
“Diversity is essential to innovation, just as innovation is to social progress,” says Vishnubhakat. “But it is not enough to study the data and refine the policy. We must also equip our students to see its value and contribute to its success.”
Diversity and access to the innovation system has been part of Vishnubhakat’s research and policy agenda for almost a decade. His 2014 study Gender Diversity in the Patent Bar was an early data-driven exploration of that subject and was cited last December in a letter to Under Secretary Iancu by Senators Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Chris Coons of Delaware. As an advisor to the Chief Economist of the USPTO from 2011 to 2015, Vishnubhakat also worked on the USPTO initiative under the America Invents Act to study the diversity of patent applicants.