This “Inclusive Programming & Resources” hub offers an initial collection of tools, programs, and initiatives designed to broaden understanding and access to IP, while supporting diverse innovators and entrepreneurs from undergraduate students to faculty members. From educational resources to diversity funding opportunities, in additional to CTL existing CTL resources, we aim to provide support to bridge the gap between knowledge and opportunity.
Inclusive Programming & Resources
Broadening Understanding and Access to IP
Educational Resources
The Inventor’s Patent Academy
The Inventor’s Patent Academy is an e-learning course developed by Invent Together and Qualcomm will help you understand the patenting process.
The Center for Intellectual Property Understanding
It is a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to bridging the gap between IP awareness and understanding. Through special events and curated content CIPU provides audiences an easy way to be better informed about the purpose and impact of IP rights, and the ways creators use them.
The Pro Bono Advisory Council (PBAC)
It is a 501 (c)(3) organization providing nationwide event series, hosting an important conversation with Federal and Private Sector experts on how under-resourced innovators can leverage the USPTO’s Patent Bono Program to bring their ideas and products to market.
IP Basics
IPBasics.org is designed to make it easy to get the essential information about IP people need to know today. IPBasics.org can be used effectively by everyone from creators, entrepreneurs, educators and students to IP professionals and investors. No prior background is necessary.
IP Protection Resources
If you are a Cornell Undergraduate or individual not bound by Cornell Policies 1.5 and 4.15, consider the following option to protect your ideas.
USPTO Patent Pro Bono Program
Free legal assistance in preparing and filing a patent application accessible under certain conditions of eligibility.
Trademark Pro Nono Program.
The International Trademark Association (INTA) has a Pro Bono Clearinghouse where individuals with a valid trademark issue and financial needs can access volunteer trademark attorneys on a pro bono basis.
USPTO first-time filer Expedited Examination Pilot Program
By lowering time-based barriers for inventors who might otherwise be unable to participate in the patent system, this initiative will enable them to bring their innovations to impact more rapidly. The First-Time Filer Expedited Examination Pilot Program expired as scheduled on March 11, 2025.
Diversity Funding Opportunities
For Startups
Postdoctoral Diversity Enrichment Program (PDEP)
The Postdoctoral Diversity Enrichment Program (PDEP) provides $60,000 over three years to support the career development activities for underrepresented minority postdoctoral fellows in a degree-granting institution in the United States or Canada whose training and professional development are guided by mentors committed to helping them advance to stellar careers in biomedical or medical research.
Women Innovators Initiative (WI2)
The Women Innovators Initiative is a Cornell program to Engage, Empower, and Grow women faculty, staff, and graduate students on the path toward technology innovation and entrepreneurial leadership.
Training Opportunities
Equalize, a comprehensive program for faculty, postdocs, and grad students in STEM disciplines that enable participants to receive training, a field-specific mentor, and access to networks that drive new entrepreneurial connections.
Diversity Data
Diversity is not just a metric to aspire to; it’s the cornerstone of economic dynamism and a reservoir of untapped potential. Yet, despite the proven benefits that diversity brings to the table, systemic disparities persist, sidelining talent and ideas that could drive societal progress and economic growth.
- It is estimated that GDP per capita could be 0.6 percent to 4.4 percent higher with greater participation in the innovative process among women and minoritized groups (Cook & Yang, 2018).
- Black, Hispanic, multiracial, and Indigenous people account for less than 8% of U.S. inventors.
- Less than 13% of all inventors who holds U.S. patents are women.
- CTL data from 2009 to 2017 shows women made up 23% of Cornell inventors, surpassing the national average of 12% in 2016, yet still below gender parity.
- In 2023, companies founded solely by women garnered just 2% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in the US. Women are over 50% of the U.S. population (PitchBook, 2024)
- Only 3.45% of founders seeking VC funding are Black, and those who raise VC funding obtain substantially less than others (Cook, Marx, Yimfor, 2024).
- Black-led startups raise only about one-third as much venture capital as the non-, Black-led startups (Cook, Marx, Yimfor, 2024).
