International Trade: Experts' Advise for Small Businesses Seeking Foreign Patents

摘要

Small and start-up businesses are important to the U.S. economy for their roles in job creation and technological development. Small businesses, particularly those in high-technology industries, must be able to protect and profit from the innovations that flow from their research and development expenditures. One way to protect innovations on a global basis is to obtain U.S. and foreign patents. However, in July 2002, we reported that small businesses face numerous impediments when trying to patent their goods or processes abroad. These impediments include high costs, limited resources, and limited knowledge among small businesses about foreign patent laws and systems. We concluded that such impediments affect small businesses more negatively than large businesses and may discourage or prevent small businesses from seeking global protection for their innovations. In that report, we recommended that the federal government (1) assess the advantages and disadvantages to small businesses of making further progress toward patent law harmonization and (2) make information about foreign patent laws, requirements, procedures, and costs available to small businesses.