When it comes to diversity and inclusion, effective patent rights are “The Great Equalizer.” Patents enable a garage inventor to create a new startup and compete with huge, entrenched interests. They provide the protection needed to put in the time and effort to perfect a novel invention for the marketplace. They secure investment to fuel innovation. Patents are the key to the innovation meritocracy, allowing Americans of any race, belief, or gender to raise their station in life and build a better life for themselves and for our country. But in recent years, patent rights have been actively dismantled by “Big Tech” greed and lost to infringing large corporations crushing the individual inventor, which raises this question: What good are “Diversity and Inclusion” when the Patent system fails at its mission to be the “Great Equalizer”?