To Boost American Innovation, Allow Under 18 Inventors to File Patents for Free

There are lots of familiar recommendations to make U.S. businesses more competitive globally. The usual suspects include:

•       Invest in infrastructure and workforce training.
•       Simplify taxes for business.
•       Produce high-value goods.
•       Stream regulations and energize R&D.

All are valid, but none are particularly creative or original.

One solution that hasn’t been pursued is not only simple, a variation of it has been implemented by America’s largest and most aggressive economic competitor: remove the filing fees for inventors and intellectual property (IP)creators under 18.

For those who doubt the value of this proposition or scoff at its viability, consider the newsworthy achievements of these young thinkers:

•       At 11 years old, Mikaila Ulmer built her lemonade stand in Austin, TX, into Me & The Bees, a popular nationally distributed beverage brand.
•       7-year-old Alina Morse developed sugar-free lollipops (Zollipops) after a dentist’s comment, growing them into a multimillion-dollar business.
•       Gabby Goodwin invented GaBBY Bows, a line of innovative hair bows, becoming a successful CEO by her teens.

On the technology side, these teen-led firms – featured recently in the Wall Street Journal – are undeniable eyebrow raisers:

•       15-year-old Nick Dobroshinsky has launched BeyondSPX, an AI-based financial research platform.
•       Raghav Arora, who was accepted into Y Combinator as a 16-year-old, founded GetASAP, a startup that uses AI to forecast inventory for grocers and distribute produce.

To nurture the pursuits of young inventors, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) (the country’s equivalent of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)) offers reductions or exemptions in filing fees for those under 18. While adult patent agents with full civil capacity must handle the application process, CNIPA’s recognition of young IP innovators reflects an understanding of the unique capabilities and talents that far-sighted minors possess. This appreciation is demonstrated by the country’s willingness to remove financial barriers to patent applications for ambitious young creators, designers, and inventors.

Can an application model that eliminates patent filing fees for gifted inventors under 18 be launched in the United States? Absolutely. Here’s an implementation roadmap:

1. The USPTO would create instructional collateral that would be made available to high school inventor and IP clubs. These extracurricular, after-school groups would be taught the essentials of the registration process by a faculty member, who’d receive appropriate training materials to lead the club. Instruction could include case studies of the development process of noteworthy inventions, discoveries, and innovations; Q&As about the USPTO application for under 18 inventors; lectures by and discussions with local entrepreneurs who’ve had success as inventors; and an overview of the venture capital investment steps that are involved with developing startups into thriving companies.
2. To identify the most promising ideas within high school inventor clubs, members would be coached by the clubs’ leaders on how to create pitch presentations that best capture the distinctiveness and benefits their proposals can deliver. These pitches would be made to a panel of successful local entrepreneurs, who would provide feedback, encouragement, and critiques of the students’ work (similar to the pitch competitions of startup accelerators and angel investor groups). Students who offer the most promising explanations and demonstrations of their visions would receive official USPTO award certificates, and the high school would arrange local media coverage to honor the selected students’ achievements.
3. The teens whose ideas are recognized in their high school inventor clubs would be eligible for help filing their patent applications from the Patent Pro Bono Program and the Law School Clinic Certification Program, both of which offer free USPTO-approved legal guidance.
4. On the state level, a bold initiative could be possible: if a teen inventor/IP entrepreneur patents something while in high school and remains a resident of the state, they would pay no state business or personal tax on income that’s generated from the profitable development of that intellectual property for the subsequent 50 years, which would cover the length of their professional career.

To support the next generation of risk takers and inspired ideators, we must nurture American exceptionalism – especially among youngsters who haven’t entered college. With that goal in mind, overlooking the many competitive advantages that cost-free USPTO filing for vetted under 18 inventors can bring is short-sighted and uninformed.

The initiative would guide and educate aspiring young business futurists from all income backgrounds nationwide.

It could invigorate promising ideas that could drive job creation, economic development, and community revitalization.

It would foster innovation among motivated teens and give America an edge over Chinese efforts in this area.

Politicians, industry thought leaders, and executives, take note: this audacious proposal has a long tail. It can yield big wins for the inventors, their communities, and prospective buyers of their pioneering output.

In the words of Tony Stark, a child prodigy who built his first circuit board at age 6, graduated from MIT at 17, and went on to devise some pretty impressive world-changing gadgetry, let’s make it fast, easy, and free for inquisitive American youngsters to demonstrate how “the future is now”.