Women Are Less Likely to Protect Their Intellectual Property

There’s a gender gap in intellectual property, and there shouldn’t be. Protecting your IP as a business owner is the right move regardless of gender, business size and income, and industry. IP theft certainly doesn’t discriminate based on gender, so what’s holding women back from filing trademarks and safeguarding their IP (and, in return, their livelihoods)?

According to a 2021 study from the University of North Carolina School of Law, which analyzed the correlation between race and gender and successful trademark applications made to the USPTO, women are underrepresented in the pool of trademark applicants. In the U.S., women make up about 51% of the population but file just over 32% of trademark applications. And although the study suggests more women are filing than ever before, they’re still filing way fewer applications than men.

There are several plausible reasons why this is true. 

👉 Less capital. Women entrepreneurs may have less access to capital than their male counterparts, which can make it more difficult for them to invest in trademark registration.

👉 Less support. Women entrepreneurs may not have a support network of other entrepreneurs who can provide advice and help them through the process of starting a new business.

👉 Lower risk tolerance. Women may be less likely to file trademarks unless they feel confident they’ll succeed in their registration, leading to fewer overall applications from women.

👉 Imposter syndrome. Women may be more likely to undervalue their IP than men because they’re socially conditioned to do so.

Interestingly, the study suggests filings made by women are MORE LIKELY to succeed than filings made by men (49.6% of marks filed by women proceeded to register compared to 44.8% of marks filed by men). And although the study was limited by the fact it only offered two gender definitions, it still paints a picture of a clear gender gap in IP.

Let’s Close the Gender Gap in Trademark Filings

A LOT of small and medium-sized businesses (“SMB’s”) are taking the hope-and-pray approach to protecting their IP. In fact, a study from the European Union IP Office and the European Patent Office found that fewer than 9% of SMBs in Europe owned a trademark, copyright, or patent. (We need a comparable study in the U.S.!) Assuming the percentage is similar on this side of the pond, let’s just say this is NOT a lawyer-approved approach. 

Trademark registration is one of the smartest investments you can make in your business—and the earlier, the better. Women in business may struggle more than their male peers with startup capital and entrepreneurial support, making it less likely they’ll file a trademark application. But this has got to change. 

The University of North Carolina study did not report finding any evidence of systemic gender bias in the USPTO trademark application process, so the factors limiting the number of women applicants are not on the USPTO’s end but on the business community’s end. So spread the word, ladies and gents: Your IP is worth protecting!

Ready to bring up the number of women protecting their brands? Schedule a trademark consultation today.