T
he United States wastes at least $6.4 billion each year in "forgone innovation" - legitimate technologies that cannot get licensed and start-ups that cannot get funding - because of backlogs and dysfunction at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the agency that's supposed to protect and encourage innovation in America.
That figure, enough to provide an average round of venture capital funding to more than 1,000 start-up companies each year, comes from the first-ever effort to quantify the economic damage inflicted by the chronic delays at the Patent Office. It was calculated by London Economics, a British research group commissioned by the British patent office to study the impact of patent backlogs around the world.
The group's report notes that backlogs are becoming common globally as companies seek simultaneous protection of each of their ideas across Europe, Asia, the U.S. and Canada.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Patent snafus cost U.S. $6.4 billion yearly - JSOnline
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