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Cantor Colburn, a leading full-service intellectual property law firm, is proud of its rich and multi-layered partnership with IPO and IPO Education Foundation. As active participants in the many opportunities IPO provides to engage with and enhance the IP legal landscape, we specifically want to recognize and salute IPO for its leadership in advancing and furthering our industry’s conversation around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). A conversation that is critically important and beneficial to us all.
As legal as well as Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) professionals who are deeply committed to diversifying the intellectual property (IP) community, we believe that the IP community greatly benefits from the inclusion and participation of women and historically underrepresented racial and ethnic minority, LGBTQ+, and disabled attorneys and agents. We partner with several large clients in collaborative, innovative ways to effectuate positive change in our DEI journeys with the goal of attracting, welcoming, encouraging and supporting women and historically underrepresented professionals in the law, STEM, innovation and entrepreneurship. We invite our clients and contacts to partner with us on solutions.
One of the many ways that IPO has not only led the DEI conversation but also been a catalyst for change is in the creation of the IPO Diversity in Innovation Diversity Toolkit and the Law Firm Toolkit Complement, which are resources for companies and law firms to help organizations achieve gender parity and overall diversity in innovation. Cantor Colburn attorneys were involved with the IPO Women in IP Subcommittee that developed the toolkit. The Toolkit is a critical resource to support diversity in innovation and bring potentially life changing inventions to the world. The USPTO noted that if women, minorities, and low-income children were to invent patented technology at the same rate as white men from high-income households, the rate of innovation in America would quadruple.[1]
Cantor Colburn works to further encourage innovation and break down barriers to invention in our local community. Headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, we have enjoyed a close partnership with the Connecticut Invention Convention (CIC), a nonprofit organization that annually reaches thousands of K-12 students across the state to foster their love of inventing, entrepreneurship, and creative problem solving. In 2021, 34% of CIC inventors self-identified as inventors of color, 58% self-identified as female, and 33% came from below-median-income areas of the state. Our attorneys and agents are student mentors, board members, and volunteer judges at the Connecticut and National Invention Convention, where students showcase their inventions and their development. We have sponsored patent awards at the National Invention Convention since its inception. Several of our clients also support the Connecticut and National Invention Convention. At IPO’s invitation, CIC student inventors attended the IPO Education Foundation Awards student sessions.
Cantor Colburn is one of 70 firms to join this year’s class of Mansfield Rule for Midsize Law Firms to become Mansfield Certified. The goal of the Mansfield Rule is to increase the representation of historically underrepresented lawyers in leadership by broadening the pool of women, LGBTQ+ lawyers, lawyers with disabilities, and/or racial/ethnic minority lawyers who are considered for leadership opportunities, promotions, entry-level and lateral attorney job openings, and opportunities to connect with clients. Many IPO members are already Mansfield Certified or are among the cohort that began working together in fall 2021.
At Cantor Colburn, we value our connections to each other as IP professionals and our collective goal to create a better world through innovation and invention for all members of our communities.
[1] Office of the Chief Economist, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Progress and Potential: A Profile of Women Inventors on U.S. Patents (2019), https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Progress-and-Potential.pdf