Intellectual property rights are the backbone of innovative businesses that release breakthrough technologies allowing more people to live longer, happier, healthier lives. A key ingredient to many technological breakthroughs has been the role of venture capital funding that relies on intellectual property rights to leverage long-term investments that otherwise would be prohibitively risky. However, changes to the U.S. patent system have effected how venture capitalists take on IP-intensive investments.
The Alliance of U.S. Startups and Inventors for Jobs (USIJ) is sounding the alarm stating that “changes to the patent system have come with at least one clear cost: A shift away from investment in industries that rely on patents. Among those businesses receiving a smaller proportion of investment are startups in the life sciences that bring life-saving treatments from labs to patients.”