Time; TIME100 AI 2025

 Time; TIME100 AI 2025

Meet the innovators, leaders, and thinkers reshaping our world through groundbreaking advances in artificial intelligence.

Invention-Con 2025: Empowering American ingenuity and innovation; United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), September 9-10, 2025

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ; Invention-Con 2025: Empowering American ingenuity and innovation

"Do you want to grow your intellectual property (IP) knowledge and gain access to IP and business experts, accomplished innovators, and inspiring entrepreneurs? Join us for the USPTO's free flagship conference for inventors, makers, and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss Invention-Con 2025, coming to you virtually September 9-10 from 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. ET daily. Tailored for the independent inventor and entrepreneur community, our marquee event brings inspiration and IP experts directly to you.

• Learn from accomplished innovators, inventors, entrepreneurs, and business owners how to use IP to achieve success.

• Discover resources available to assist at every stage of your journey.

• Connect with IP and business experts who can help you develop a strategy for your innovation, from idea to market."

World Intellectual Property Day, 2025; The White House, April 26, 2025

The White House; World Intellectual Property Day, 2025

 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 
A PROCLAMATION

       More than 200 years ago, our Founding Fathers recognized the profound importance of intellectual property, enshrining government-granted legal protections in the Constitution to safeguard American innovation.  On World Intellectual Property Day, we renew our resolve to protect and secure the creative triumphs of American inventors and artists as they work to pull the future into the present and turn their dreams into our reality.
     Americans have always been leaders in the realms of technology and ideas — and under my Administration, we are driving innovation in every sector, including emerging digital technologies like artificial intelligence.  I recently signed an Executive Order on Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence to slash red tape and ensure our continued leadership in this and other critical industries like automation, blockchain, data analytics, and cybersecurity.
     For this reason, I established the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which is bringing together the best and brightest to shape the United States’ innovation policy and ensure our continued technological leadership.  My Administration will not waver in protecting and securing emerging, next-generation technologies that will drive progress and growth in the 21st century.
     My Administration is taking strong action to protect the promise of American innovation.  For too long, our adversaries and allies alike have sapped our strength and exploited American advancements.  Through the strategic use of tariffs, we are recentering our trade policy and securing stronger intellectual property protections in new and existing trade deals.  Just as we protect our physical property, we will not tolerate the theft of our intellectual property, and we will defend our businesses and people from those who are seeking to steal American jobs and wealth.
     As President Calvin Coolidge once said in an immortal maxim that remains true to this day, “The business of America is business.”  Our economy is the greatest in the world because we, more than any other country, incentivize individuals to dream big, take risks, and make the impossible possible.  Through our promotion and protection of intellectual property, we are empowering musicians, writers, authors, scientists, and inventors to focus on what they do best.
     The future of our great Nation depends on the continued safeguarding of our intellectual property, which fuels economic growth, technological progress, and global competitiveness.  This World Intellectual Property Day, we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to protecting and promoting the innovative spirit that continues to make America great.
     NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 26, 2025, as World Intellectual Property Day.  I encourage Americans to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of our creators and inventors and the contributions they have made and will continue making to our country.
     IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.

DONALD J. TRUMP"

Celebrate the grand opening of Kentucky’s newest Patent and Trademark Resource Center; United States Patent and Trademark Center (USPTO), December 19, 2024

United States Patent and Trademark Center (USPTO); Celebrate the grand opening of Kentucky’s newest Patent and Trademark Resource Center

"Kentucky innovators, join us in person on Tuesday, January 7, from 3-6 p.m. ET for the grand opening of the Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) at the University of Louisville’s Kornhauser Health Sciences Library.  

Celebrate this addition to the innovation community with remarks from USPTO and university leadership and an official ribbon cutting. You’ll learn about the vital role of intellectual property (IP) in Kentucky and the numerous resources available to help innovators protect their IP.  

After the program concludes, join your fellow creators for an informal networking session at the Louisville Thoroughbred Society from 6:30-8 p.m. ET."

Pitt’s national patent ranking improved to No. 14 in 2023; PittWire, June 4, 2024

Mike Yeomans , PittWire; Pitt’s national patent ranking improved to No. 14 in 2023

"Innovators at the University of Pittsburgh received 114 U.S. patents in 2023, up from 105 the year before. Their efforts earned Pitt a No. 14 ranking for utility patents granted among universities nationally, according to a list the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) published in June. 

NAI has published the Top 100 Worldwide Universities list each year since 2013, and last year the organization added the U.S. ranking. Pitt is ranked No. 19 on the global list.

Pitt inventors can find support for bringing their ideas to life at every step of the process in the Office of Innovation and Entrpreneurship (OIE), which tracks patents issued each month and offers commercialization resources, sessions with experts in residence and funding opportunities to the University community...

The Top 100 U.S. Universities list is meant to provide a more focused view of the national innovation landscape and the contributions made by U.S. academic institutions. Pitt ranks just behind the University of Pennsylvania, which earned 119 patents, and ahead of Northwestern University (108 patents), Cornell University (94 patents) and Duke University (92 patents)."

4 Things to Know About Intellectual Property and COVID-19 Vaccines; U.S. Chamber of Commerce, December 9, 2021

U.S. Chamber of Commerce; 4 Things to Know About Intellectual Property and COVID-19 Vaccines

Intellectual property enabled the discovery of lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines. Here’s why calls to waive IP rights would undermine medical innovation and our ability to respond to the next pandemic.

"Key takeaways

• Some governments, including the United States, are considering a proposal to waive intellectual property laws for COVID-19 vaccines.
• But waiving intellectual property laws could jeopardize medical innovation, including the development of new or adapted vaccines to combat COVID-19 variants like Omicron.
• Waiving intellectual property rights for COVID vaccines could have ripple effects on innovators and investments across industries."

Open Access, Open Source, and the Battle to Defeat COVID-19; JD Supra, April 22, 2020

PerkinsCoie, JD Supra; Open Access, Open Source, and the Battle to Defeat COVID-19

"No legal development over the past decades has had a greater impact on the free flow of information and technology than the rise of the open access and open source movements. We recently looked at how AI, machine learning, blockchain, 3D printing, and other disruptive technologies are being employed in response to the coronavirus pandemic; we now turn to how two disruptive legal innovations, open access and open source, are being used to fight COVID-19. Although the pandemic is far from over, there are already promising signs that open access and open source solutions are allowing large groups of scientists, healthcare professionals, software developers, and innovators across many countries to mobilize quickly and effectively to combat and, hopefully, mitigate the impact of the coronavirus."

On National Inventors’ Day, Celebrating IBM’s Innovators; Forbes, February 11, 2020

Dario Gil, Director of IBM Research, Forbes; On National Inventors’ Day, Celebrating IBM’s Innovators

"It all boils down to the culture, and the diverse global network of human beings who drive it. As Chieko Asakawa, who lost her eyesight at age 14 and went on to pioneer technologies that open the wonders of the Internet to visually impaired users, puts it: “IBM has a culture that respects each person’s own perspective. It’s a culture of listening, discussion and thinking about ideas together.”

Asakawa was recently inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her work to create the Home Page Reader, a web-to-speech system, improving internet accessibility and usability for the visually impaired. 

“When I started working for IBM,” she reflects, “my blindness became my strength.”

And her strength—along with the talent of all her inventive colleagues—is one of IBM’s greatest assets."

America’s Innovators Need Clear Patent Laws; Wall Street Journal, January 23, 2020

Paul R. Michel and Matthew J. Dowd, Wall Street Journal;

America’s Innovators Need Clear Patent Laws

The Supreme Court has muddled the standards for intellectual property, so Congress may have to act.

"America is the world’s leader in technological innovation, and that’s unlikely to change. But in the global economy, information and investments flow instantaneously, and America’s most important asset--intellectual property--is easily copied and counterfeited.

Making matters worse, a string of court decisions have weakened U.S. intellectual property rights."

The real US patent 'crisis'; The Hill, December 9, 2019

Brian Pomper, The Hill; The real US patent 'crisis'

"The true crisis in our patent system is the dire state of Section 101 jurisprudence, the area of law determining what is and what is not eligible for patent protection. For nearly 150 years, Section 101 of the U.S. Patent Act was interpreted to allow inventions to be patented across broad categories and subject matters. These patents incentivized American R&D and innovation and led to countless technological and medical breakthroughs.

Starting in 2010, however, the Supreme Court issued a series of decisions that have upended longstanding settled law and narrowed the scope of patent-eligible subject matter...

Restoring clear patent rights will be essential to maintaining a strong and healthy U.S. innovation ecosystem...

So yes, patent quality is important, and we must provide the USPTO with the resources it needs to carefully weigh patent applications and make consistent, defensible and predictable decisions. But the real patent crisis we face is the inability of innovators to get patents for their new inventions under Section 101."

How a rigid fair-use standard would harm free speech and fundamentally undermine the Internet; Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2017

Art Neill, Los Angeles Times; How a rigid fair-use standard would harm free speech and fundamentally undermine the Internet

"In a recent Times op-ed article, Jonathan Taplin of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab claimed that an “ambiguous“ fair use definition is emboldening users of new technologies to challenge copyright infringement allegations, including takedown notices. He proposes rewriting fair use to limit reuses of audio or video clips to 30 seconds or less, a standard he mysteriously claims is “widely accepted.”

In fact, this is not a widely accepted standard, and weakening fair use in this way will not address copyright infringement concerns on the Internet. It would hurt the music, film and TV industries as much as it would hurt individual creators...

Fair use is inextricably linked to our 1st Amendment right to free speech. We are careful with fair use because it’s the primary way consumers, creators and innovators share new ideas. It’s a good thing, and it is worth protecting."

Canada needs an innovative intellectual property strategy; Globe and Mail, May 19, 2017

James Hinton and Peter Cowan, Globe and Mail; 

Canada needs an innovative intellectual property strategy

"The recent federal budget signalled a dramatic shift in Canada’s approach to innovation. By announcing a national intellectual property (IP) strategy, the government finally addressed the calls of innovation experts who understand the critical role of IP in a 21st-century economy...

Canadian innovators have only a basic understanding about IP

Canadian entrepreneurs understand IP strategy as a defensive mechanism to protect their products. In reality, IP is the most critical tool for revenue growth and global expansion in a 21st-century economy. Cross-discipline awareness and education is needed so that our innovators know how to generate IP through technology standards, regulatory design, ecosystem-licensing strategies, litigation, trade agreements and so on. Companies should also have access to pro bono and low-cost services at all publicly funded institutions."

Lee staying on as patent chief under Trump administration; Politico, 1/19/17

Ashley Gold, Nancy Scola, Li Zhou, Tony Romm, Politico; 

Lee staying on as patent chief under Trump administration

"President-elect Donald Trump has decided to keep former Google executive Michelle Lee on as director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, according to Rep. Darrell Issa, who informed tech industry organizations gathered in Washington Thursday for a breakfast event...

Lee, who served a dozen years as patent counsel at Google, has been seen in her years in office as walking a careful line between the two patent camps — choosing to focus less on policy than on process upgrades aimed at improving the quality of patents issued by the office.

"I hope that Director Lee expands her focus from just patent quality and lends her expertise and authority to help fix the very real problem that the U.S. has lost its "gold standard" patent system — it no longer promises stable, effective property rights to innovators," said Adam Mosoff, a law professor and co-founder of the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property at George Mason University."

Pitt Innovation Showcase; University of Pittsburgh, 9/28/16

[Press Release] University of Pittsburgh; Pitt Innovation Showcase:

"The Pitt Innovation Showcase is your opportunity to see firsthand the exciting technologies being developed and moved toward commercialization at Pitt. It is also the opening reception for Science 2016.

Please plan on stopping by Alumni Hall on Wednesday, October 19, from 4-7 p.m. to network with Pitt Innovators, investors, entrepreneurs and members of the regional startup community.

The event begins with the Michael G. Wells Entrepreneurial Scholars Lecture that features this year a panel of leading healthcare entrepreneurs and investors who will give a behind-the-scenes look at getting a healthcare innovation from the lab to the market.

This will be followed by the announcement of the winners of the Wells Students Healthcare Competition and the Kuzneski Innovation Cup.

The Opening Reception and Innovation Showcase begin at 5 p.m. in the J.W. Connolly Ballroom, First Floor.

Come and be inspired by the Pitt faculty, students and staff who are working to make their entrepreneurial dreams a reality and make an impact on the world.

Click here to register."

President Obama to Host White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh; University of Pittsburgh Press Release, 8/30/16

Joe Miksch, University of Pittsburgh Press Release; President Obama to Host White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh:

"President Obama will travel to Pittsburgh Oct. 13 to host the White House Frontiers Conference, a national convening that the White House is cohosting with the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University to explore the future of innovation here and around the world. The convening will include topics in the November issue of WIRED, which will be guest-edited by the president on the theme of “Frontiers.” The conference will focus on building U.S. capacity in science, technology, and innovation, and the new technologies, challenges, and goals that will continue to shape the 21st century and beyond.

The White House Frontiers Conference will bring together some of the world’s leading innovators in Pittsburgh to discuss how investing in science and technology frontiers will help improve lives, including progress and investments that are keeping America and Americans on the cutting edge of innovation."

Open access 2013: A year of gaining momentum; Scientific American, 12/26/13

Hilda Bastian, Scientific American; Open access 2013: A year of gaining momentum: "Was this the year open access for science reached critical mass? One hypothesis suggests that a transformative group needs to reach one-third to be prominent and persisting. Rogers’ theory on the diffusion of innovations that will eventually reach saturation level says the first 2.5% are innovators. By the time you get to 16% the phase of early adopters could be ending. If that’s the trajectory that accessible scientific publications is on, one estimate suggests it went past early adopter level in 2011, when about 17% of scholarly articles were available within 12 months (12% immediately). There had been just under 8% published in open access journals in 2009."