We analyze the gender gap in the success of patent application at the USPTO. We leverage quasi-exogeneous variation … from the random assignment of patent examiners within technology fields, allowing us to find the causal impact of examiner … patent approval. This gender gap does not seem to be impacted by the gender of the examiner of the application. When we focus …

and stronger patent protections were positive, while greater economic prosperity somewhat led to complacency. …

Patent law is considered to be an objective law, dealing with the objective subject matter of the “technical arts”. Yet …, empirical studies show that patenting rates around the world are gendered. This article analyses the roots of the gender patent … gap, and how this correlates to the invention and innovation processes. It shows that the gendered nature of the patent …