Study says patents aren’t helping small businesses

The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council recently conduct a survey that says the paperwork and complexity of registering a patent is draining small businesses. The study also says that most patents are failing to meet set standards, making small businesses owners and entrepreneurs doing a lot of extra, unnecessary work.

Raymond Keating, the group’s chief economist, said the patent system needed to be restructured to get better quality patents while keeping costs to those seeking them low. He also felt a  shift to a first-inventor-to-file approach, as opposed to first-to-invent might be a better approach long term.

Many of these reforms are already included in the bipartisan Patent Reform Act, which was approved by the House last year and is expected to be taken up in the Senate in the next few months.

What do you think?  Are you seeking patents?  Is it difficult?