Innovation Originators

Authors

Tabrez Y. Ebrahim, Lewis & Clark Law SchoolFollow
Rafeel Wasif, Portland State UniversityFollow

Abstract

Asian Americans are one of the most striking and undertheorized ethnic groups in the field of innovation. While a prolific ethnic group when it comes to being named as inventors on U.S. patents, very little has been written on this observation, perhaps because of previously limited datasets and unwieldy data analysis on ethnic backgrounds about patenting at the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). Research on inventor diversity and ethnicity in innovation has begun to explore some ethnic groups, but a more holistic account should focus on one particular overlooked group. Recently, entrepreneurship studies concerning ethnicity have shown that Asian Americans represent a relatively small percentage of technology startup founders, and while those studies have focused on comparing White, Black, and Latinx founders, more granular attention is necessary for Asian American founders.

In this Article, we describe and analyze why Asian Americans are overrepresented as inventors on U.S. patents and underrepresented as technology startup founders relative to other ethnic groups. We examine the link between inventors and entrepreneurs based on ethnicity (focusing on Asian Americans); draw normative implications for immigration law, venture capital law, and patent law; and provide proposals and economic insights for the USPTO and U.S. innovation policy. We utilize computational surname and artificial intelligence (AI) methods to determine statistics of Asian Americans and Asians named on U.S. patents and U.S. startup formation documents. We demonstrate that, contrary to widely held assumptions, the combination of Asian Americans and Asians (not Whites) is the current largest percentage represented as inventors on U.S. patents. We hypothesize and draw implications as to why, relative to other ethnic groups, Asian Americans are less likely to become founders of startups than inventors on U.S. patents based on cultural and psychological characteristics, educational backgrounds, and immigration. We argue that innovation policy should more fully consider the contributions of Asian Americans, and we identify ways for the USPTO and policymakers to foster entrepreneurship from Asian American inventors.

Recommended Citation

Tabrez Y. Ebrahim & Rafeel Wasif, Innovation Originators, 31 Mich. Tech. L. Rev. 1 (2024).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mtlr/vol31/iss1/1