Too expensive to compete.
Smaller companies and entrepreneurs face a patent system whose cost can put serious protection out of reach before they ever get to compete.
Patent & IP
The patent system is stacked against the American entrepreneur.
Protecting invention has become too expensive, too slow, increasingly competitive globally, and concentrated in the hands of a small number of large companies.
Four structural problems
A David vs. Goliath system for American inventors.
Keep the story simple: cost, speed, foreign competition, and concentration. The deeper data and methodology live at Red Tape Index.
Too slow for innovation.
Ideas and markets move quickly. Patent processes do not. Long timelines can leave smaller inventors waiting while competitors keep moving.
America's innovation edge is under pressure.
Foreign patent activity is rising while American inventors navigate a system already burdened by cost and delay.
A small group dominates patenting activity.
Patent activity is heavily concentrated among the largest players, while smaller companies face a materially different path through the system.
- 42% of all patents are filed by 300 companies.
- 11% go to the top 10 companies.
- 18-point approval-rate gap between small and large companies.
Red Tape Index · Patent Index
The full picture is coming into focus.
Explore the data, blockers, and structural forces shaping who gets to protect innovation in America. The Red Tape Index will carry the detailed problem statement and supporting data.
Explore the Patent Index