This session featured Valencia Martin Wallace, Deputy Commissioner of Patents at the USPTO, discussing the critical role of intellectual property (IP) in empowering Black innovators and creators. She emphasized the importance of education, awareness, and access to IP rights as fundamental tools for economic empowerment and self-determination within the Black community. Valencia shared her personal journey from Howard University to the USPTO, highlighting the value of support networks and the necessity of protecting one’s innovations through patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. She underscored that IP protection is not limited to complex inventions but includes everyday innovations, encouraging attendees to understand and leverage different types of IP to monetize their ideas. The session also addressed systemic barriers, stressing that access to IP education and funding is a right, not a privilege, and highlighted efforts by the USPTO’s Council for Inclusive Innovation to nurture inventors from a young age through lifelong support. Ultimately, the session connected intellectual property to collective economic growth and cooperative economics, urging the Black community to invest in and protect their creativity to build generational wealth and contribute to national prosperity.
