Name: MPW Summit 2023: Innovation, Entrepreneurship, And Economic Growth
Uploaded: 2023-10-11
Duration: 14 min 26 s
Description: Kathi Vidal, Under Secretary, Commerce for Intellectual Property; Director, United States Patent and Trademark Office Moderator: Ruth Umoh, FORTUNE

Kathi Vidal, Under Secretary, Commerce for Intellectual Property; Director, United States Patent and Trademark Office Moderator: Ruth Umoh, FORTUNE

MPW Summit 2023: Innovation, Entrepreneurship, And Economic Growth

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Ok. So next, we're on to our conversation with Kathy Vidal. Kathy Vidal is serious about safeguarding the ideas of American innovators and as under Secretary of Commerce, the Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. She is very well positioned to do so. Kathy is the principal IP advisor to President Biden and the administration through her work with us, Commerce Secretary, Gina Raimundo. Cathy is a fierce proponent of promoting entrepreneurship across all demographics, especially in key areas of technology. And she's dedicated to helping workers and businesses compete and collaborate as Cathy puts it. Her role is at the intersection of IP law policy, innovation and impact. We are honored to have Cathy join Fortune's Ruth um for a conversation on the power of supporting and protecting bold ideas and fostering business growth. Please welcome them both to the stage. Welcome Kathy. We're delighted to have you a long time NPW member. Thank you. Thank you so good to be here. We're going to kick off today's session uh with a video from you as Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. If you could please roll the tape. Hello, everybody. It's such an honor to join you virtually for this year's most powerful women's summit. I so wish I could be with you in person. I know that for many of the women in this room working in business, one of the top issues on your mind is China and the ability of us companies to invest in China and to expand there. So that's why I want to share some of my insights from my recent trip to Beijing and Shanghai. My visit in August was the first trip by a US Commerce Secretary in more than five years and it was a productive visit. But the real work lies ahead. The good news is that I had candid constructive conversations with my Chinese counterparts. I didn't hold back. I explained that I will protect what we must but promote where we can. So that means our national security is not negotiable, but we should do business wherever we can. In preparation for my trip, I spoke with more than 100 US CEO S and I was very fortunate to sit down with more us business leaders first in Beijing and later in Shanghai to hear their view of their experiences of what it's like to do business. Now in China, I heard increasing fears that the regulatory and legal environment is making it nearly impossible to make new investments. China is a market with over a billion people. There's still a strong desire among us companies to participate in that opportunity but companies need to see predictability due process and a level playing field. But the good news is that as a result of the trip, we've created new channels of communication including a commercial issues, working group and an export control enforcement information exchange to further explain our national security policies and prevent misunderstandings and miscalculations. We also announced the 14th China Us Tourism Leadership Summit and we agreed that technical experts from both sides would convene to strengthen protection for trade secrets. As we all know at the end of the day, actions speak louder than words, but shutting down communication doesn't serve our economic goals or our national security goals. So I would say overall, the trip was an excellent beginning. I'm clear eyed about the challenges that lie ahead and we're looking for China to show us that they're serious now that we've established the necessary channels to make progress. They have an opportunity to match their words with actions in making the business environment clearer and more predictable. And I hope they take it. I hope you continue to communicate with me at the Department of Commerce. Let us know the concerns you have and the opportunities you see when it comes to doing business in China. I'm relying on your insight now more than ever have a wonderful summit. Thank you. Ok, again, welcome. Uh I'm curious to hear your thoughts on Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo's recap of her visit to China on one hand geopolitical threats are forcing companies to reduce their reliance on China. But there is still a large us corporate presence in the country. What did your office learn after that? China? Business and what do business leaders in particular need to know? So, so let me ask. So first of all, happy to be here. Let me ask how many people do business in China? Substantial amount? Wow, a lot. So um you know, the her talk that she just gave really embodies everything that she's about. It's about action, it's about finding opportunity and it's about Deris. Uh So you're right, there are a lot of risks in China right now. Um We understand them, we hear from stakeholders on it. And what we're doing with China is we're trying to engage in a productive dialogue to figure out where we can make positive change for the country. So the secretary, as she said, has gone to China. There hadn't been a Secretary of Commerce who had gone for five years. We are in China. The US PT is in China every day this morning. I was on a 5 a.m. call with China with my people in China talking about how we're implementing on her plan. So it's an area of extreme focus. It's a big opportunity. It's a big market, but we need to make sure that we're not creating any issues with regard to national security. We need to make sure that we're protecting intellectual property because as you said, trade secret misappropriation is a big issue for companies doing business in China. And so we're doing everything we can to de risk where we can to find opportunities and make the most of it. You are still engaging in dialogue. Are there commercial areas where the two countries can effectively collaborate? So I will say I had meetings this summer with China, Japan, Europe and Korea. And we tried to come up with an area where we could really all lean in together and we chose climate. I mean, that's an area where everybody knows we need change, change, that happens anywhere can affect change across the entire globe. So I thought that was a very productive way to lean in in a technology area where we're not competing where we just need to solve it for the benefit of the world. We'll circle back on climate shortly. Looking back stateside from your vantage point, how would you characterize the state of entrepreneurship in the US at the moment? So I would say look around when it comes to entrepreneurship because you know, it's not heavily woman, it's not heavily color, it's not heavily diverse. And so in my view, anything that hasn't reached that equality and that inclusiveness needs fixing. And so a lot of the work that we're doing across the Department of Commerce, including on the National Advisory Council on Innovation and entrepreneurship is trying to identify with your help with those who sit on the committee and your help. When you contribute your ideas, what are the barriers and how can we create a better ecosystem within the United States so that more people can be pulled into entrepreneurship and more people can thrive. And just as a part of that, the secretary and I also founded the women's entrepreneurship initiative where we're a actively working to reach out to women, help them understand the value of intellectual property and why it's so key not only to launching and getting the funding, but to protect your innovation and your company from your ideas being stolen. And then we're also obviously talking about funding, mentorship and all the other things you need to be successful. Let's bring some data to that women as you know, are listed on about 13% of us patents. You've previously said that bringing a woman into the patented system at the same rate as men could add a whopping $1 trillion to the US economy. No small number. Why are we, first of all seeing this gender imbalance among patent holders? And what initiatives have you launched to reach perhaps younger, more diverse audiences? So, and I will say I take everything up a level, right? So the office that I run is patents and trademarks, but I sit within commerce. So I'm always thinking about what do we need to do as a country to create jobs, to increase DP, to have a better level of life for people. And so when I think about that, and I think about the untapped opportunity of bringing people who have not traditionally participated in the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in. That's where I'm focused. That's the biggest opportunity. It's women, it's people of color, it's on military, military spouses, veterans like the amazing women that you met. We're leaning in, across all of that. And in terms of our initiatives, again, what we're focused on is where is the opportunity, like where are the barriers? So one thing is we don't teach our kids about innovation and entrepreneurship. Although I was talking to melody backstage and she said her daughter knows about trademark. That was, that was a delight to hear that. So last year alone, we, our office worked with a partner organization and we trained 343,000 Children across our country about innovation, entrepreneurship, intellectual property. Within a week, these kids are asking questions like, how can I protect my merch on the internet? And I have to tell you the younger generations and women very empathetic when it comes to the things they're solving for. I went to an on base school in Hawaii and there were placards on the wall and the kids were supposed to come up with their inventive ideas and put them on the wall. And the one that said climate was so full of inventions. I mean, 11 kid who was nine years old had this idea. Some of them are a little crazy ideas of creating gloves. So when he swims through the ocean, he can pick up the plastic particulates with his gloves. I mean, just, you know, crazy ideas and some of them are really empathetic, they're really ideas that could make a difference in the world. Let's touch on A I, your master's thesis was an artificial intelligence A I is a big focus at the US five years ago, a few years ago. And it's a big focus at the US patent and trademark office. Has there been a considerable uptick in terms of A I patent applications and which companies do you see lead in the charge. So I will say, first of all, I will say on A I, it's not just the focus of our office, it's the focus of the entire Biden administration. So the president is going to issue an executive order soon on A I. And that will tell you the ways that we're leaning in, across us government. When it comes to A I, we do see it not just as a potential risk but as an opportunity. It's an opportunity for equality for inclusion for the US to get even further ahead when it comes to innovation. But again, we have to de risk it. So when it comes to what we're seeing at the, at the patent office, we are seeing A I innovation throughout the entire country. So we have mapped that. We have a study on it where there are certain states where you see a bunch of A I used in the farm industry and other states where it's used in sports gear. So it's not just in the normal pockets of innovation, it's much more dispersed. The other thing we're seeing is not just A I applications, but we are seeing A I dispersed across most of our technology groups. So we break up all the patents into different technologies right now. They're in at least 50% of our technology groups. So it's both an opportunity and a challenge because now our patent examiners need to understand A I as well as whatever the fundamental technology is that they were working on. Let me ask you this, would a human be able to receive a patent for an invention that was A I developed? OK. So that's interesting. So I will say I'm working on that. So um so we did go to court because of Davos. The, it was the, they listed the A I as the inventor. And so we won on that. It's the case has been tried across the globe where A I itself cannot be an inventor. You need a natural person. So the next thing I thought was OK. The next thing somebody's going to do is they're going to invent something with A I and they're just gonna list themselves. So how do we deal with that because for IP I mean, it's in our constitution, it's supposed to strike the right balance of providing an incentive for innovation but not overly locking it up. Right? If I set A I loose on the internet now and I said, search for every problem and come up with every solution, you can imagine that would be a disaster. None of you could release new products because we would have patented all of them. So we're trying to figure out what the right balance is on that. So I am now working on inventor guidance, other countries have asked me about that because this is not something that's just a US issue, we have to solve for this across the globe. And the way I orient to it is not what role at A I play. But did the human provide enough of a contribution where this warrants the reward of a patent for the ingenuity for the investment that the human or the company put into whatever they were venting. So that's in process probably release it in the next month or two. And then we're going to move to some of the other issues around what should we be protecting now that we know that A I can solve for things much more quickly. I say the most important question for last, why did your office reject Mariah Carey's application to trademark the term queen of Christmas. So I will say so I was, I was forewarned and say, I don't want to talk about anybody's their process before my office. But I will say those things are trademark 100% that bitch that not a So I'm just saying, if you, if you've got a good brand and you want to put it on a T shirt and it, people think that li that when they see 100% that bitch, we'll give you a drink so well I might trademark ruthless. That'll be mine. It's already October. So I'm sure Mariah Carey is already defrosted in anticipation for the Christmas season. But Kathy, thank you so much for your time. This is such a robust conversation. Thank you. Thank all of you.