S.Amdt. 3963

SA 3963. Ms. HIRONO submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 3867 submitted by Mr. Reed and intended to be proposed to
the bill H.R. 4350, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2022
for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the appropriate place, insert the following:

SEC. ___. COLLECTION OF DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION FOR PATENT
INVENTORS.

(a) Amendment.--Chapter 11 of title 35, United States Code,
is amended by adding at the end the following:

``Sec. 124. Collection of demographic information for patent
inventors

``(a) Voluntary Collection.--The Director shall provide for
the collection of demographic information, including gender,
race, military or veteran status, and any other demographic
category that the Director determines appropriate, related to
each inventor listed with an application for patent, that may
be submitted voluntarily by that inventor.
``(b) Protection of Information.--The Director shall--
``(1) keep any information submitted under subsection (a)
confidential and separate from the application for patent;
and
``(2) establish appropriate procedures to ensure--
``(A) the confidentiality of any information submitted
under subsection (a); and
``(B) that demographic information is not made available to
examiners or considered in the examination of any application
for patent.
``(c) Relation to Other Laws.--
``(1) Freedom of information act.--Any demographic
information submitted under subsection (a) shall be exempt
from disclosure under section 552(b)(3) of title 5.
``(2) Federal information policy law.--Subchapter I of
chapter 35 of title 44 shall not apply to the collection of
demographic information under subsection (a).
``(d) Publication of Demographic Information.--
``(1) Report required.--Not later than 1 year after the
date of enactment of this section, and not later than January
31 of each year thereafter, the Director shall make publicly
available a report that, except as provided in paragraph
(3)--
``(A) includes the total number of patent applications
filed during the previous year disaggregated--
``(i) by demographic information described in subsection
(a); and
``(ii) by technology class number, technology class title,
country of residence of the inventor, and State of residence
of the inventor in the United States;
``(B) includes the total number of patents issued during
the previous year disaggregated--
``(i) by demographic information described in subsection
(a); and
``(ii) by technology class number, technology class title,
country of residence of the inventor, and State of residence
of the inventor in the United States; and
``(C) includes a discussion of the data collection
methodology and summaries of the aggregate responses.
``(2) Data availability.--In conjunction with issuance of
the report under paragraph (1), the Director shall make
publicly available data based on the demographic information
collected under subsection (a) that, except as provided in
paragraph (3), allows the information to be cross-tabulated
to review subgroups.
``(3) Privacy.--The Director--
``(A) may not include personally identifying information
in--
``(i) the report made publicly available under paragraph
(1); or
``(ii) the data made publicly available under paragraph
(2); and
``(B) in making publicly available the report under
paragraph (1) and the data under paragraph (2), shall
anonymize any personally identifying information related to
the demographic information collected under subsection (a).
``(e) Biennial Report.--Not later than 2 years after the
date of enactment of this section, and every 2 years
thereafter, the Director shall submit to Congress a biennial
report that evaluates the data collection process under this
section, ease of access to the information by the public, and
recommendations on how to improve data collection.''.
(b) Technical and Conforming Amendment.--The table of
sections at the beginning of chapter 11 of title 35, United
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

``124. Collection of demographic information for patent inventors.''.
______