Startups & the U.S. Patent System: Prioritizing Quality and Balance to Promote Innovation

The following statement is attributed to Kate Tummarello, Executive Director of Engine:

Statement:

Patent policy has an important role to play in supporting some of the nation’s youngest, emerging innovators: high-growth, high-tech startups. These companies make exciting, essential contributions to technology and the economy. While entrepreneurship is very risky and challenging, the startup ecosystem is still poised to thrive, especially when policymakers are focused on balance and quality in the patent system. And now is a pivotal time for policymakers to (re)focus on those themes.

Background:

Over the past 15 years there had been a series of positive developments in law and policy which created a more startup-friendly patent system. Scores of startups have been able to obtain high-quality U.S. patents, and it had been increasingly difficult for bad actors to wield low-quality patents in ways that hurt startups and innovation. But unfortunately more recent policies have charted a different course, and startups are experiencing an uptick in abusive patent assertion.

To support startups now, policymakers should consider several guiding principles and specific actions to promote balance and quality. Importantly, policymakers must prioritize patent quality, and not patent quantity. High-quality patents can be a vital asset, while lowquality patents drain innovation and stand in the way of startup success. It’s important that startup patent applicants have the resources and services they need to file strong applications and that policymakers establish and maintain high standards for patentability, to promote these goals.

Likewise, efficient and affordable mechanisms to weed out low-quality patents can help create the balance in the patent system. It is an unfortunate reality that low-quality patents will occasionally be granted (and perhaps more than occasionally). And patent assertion entities—or so called “patent trolls”—will continually find ways to leverage those weak patents and imbalance in the system to threaten startups. But if startups can afford to fight back, it helps them succeed and makes abuse less profitable and less common. It all comes down to this: our country faces a long road of economic recovery, and we need startups to be able to survive and thrive after the COVID-19 pandemic.

But if startups are forced to waste time with low-quality patents and frivolous patent assertions—assertions that can be lethal—they will not be able to grow at such a pace as before. In this report, we aim to explore patent policy through the lens of a startup, demystify the underlying legal concepts that can often be challenging to understand, and offer concrete solutions to advance a patent system that prioritizes innovation for all.

Read more here.