BIPLA Statement on Recent Federal Policy Announcements

The Trump administration also has issued various Executive Orders requiring federal agencies to eliminate programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).  While the full impact of these orders is yet to be determined, it is notable that several webpages related to diversity initiatives are no longer be available on the USPTO website, including pages formerly related to the Diversity Information Platform (2) and the Council for Inclusive Innovation (3).  The rollback of the USPTO’s DEI programs could jeopardize innovation in a number of ways.  First, the erosion of inclusion programs may increase attrition , thus exacerbating the workload problems that could arise from the personnel policies discussed above.  Moreover,  many of the initiatives at the USPTO that may be impacted by the DEI-related orders were intended to expand American innovation.  For example, the Council for Inclusive Innovation, or CI², which has apparently been deactivated (3), was created as part of an effort to promote participation and opportunity in the innovation ecosystem by inventors from all backgrounds, including previously underrepresented communities.  The CI² helped generate initiatives to support would-be innovators such as the First-Time Filer Expedited Examination Program (4) and Community Outreach Campaigns (5).  If CI²  and similar programs are abandoned, it will be difficult to identify additional opportunities to expand the innovation community.

Finally, although IP law and immigration law are two fields that are not often thought to intersect, the recent Executive Order on birthright citizenship could have harmful and long-term effects on innovation in the United States.  According to a USPTO study released in January 2025 analyzing data from 2000-2012, 22% of inventor-patentees in 2012 were immigrants, and immigrant inventor-patentees contributed to 40% of all patents (6).  Those percentages are likely to be at least as high today as they were in 2012.  Furthermore, immigrant inventor-patentees were especially active in the electrical engineering field, which is a critical field if the United States is to maintain its leadership in areas such as artificial intelligence.  However, as drafted, the citizenship order would (if upheld by the courts) strip birthright citizenship from children of immigrants whose presence is “lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa)” (7).  Thus, the order on its face seems to affect many potential immigrant inventors, including H-1B visa holders, a large percentage of whom work in STEM fields and who have lived in the United States for many years.  If the children of H-1B visa holders are not eligible to become citizens, then inventors who might otherwise immigrate to the United States with the intention of putting down roots here will likely be discouraged from doing so, especially as an ongoing backlog in employment-based green card quotas leaves many immigrants tangled in the immigration process for a decade or more (8).  America will thus lose out on innovations not only by immigrants themselves, but also innovations by any children of immigrants  who might otherwise grow up here and become inventors in their own right. 

Indeed, research supports the conclusion that immigration restrictions reduce innovation. In one egregious example in American history, the 1924 Immigration Act served as a barrier to immigration by people from Southern and Eastern Europe among others (9). It was correlated with a significant drop in the number of U.S. patents issued in succeeding years—a loss that was “equivalent to eliminating the entire physics department year each year between 1925 and 1955,” with a negative effect on U.S. invention that lasted into the 1960s (9). Given the importance of IP and innovation to America’s economy and national security, the BIPLA supports efforts that maintain the strength of the USPTO and expand access to the innovation ecosystem. We will continue to engage with the USPTO and the executive branch to advocate for policies consistent with those goals.