As the U.S. begins to limp through another anemic year economically, we see more government regulation hampering innovation — this time engineered by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office through its new fast-track process. A fee of $4,000 (increased from the base fee of $1,090) would expedite the process from an average of 35 months to 12 months. Although I supported this concept when it was announced last year, the $3,000 added burden seems overwhelming to small companies. Why should we be worried about the effect of this fee increase on small companies instead of how it affects established innovators such as IBM and Apple?
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A Patented Method to Create Jobs
Posted by: Andrea Belz February 16, 2011 05:30 AMAs the U.S. begins to limp through another anemic year economically, we see more government regulation hampering innovation — this time engineered by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office through its new fast-track process. A fee of $4,000 (increased from the base fee of $1,090) would expedite the process from an average of 35 months to 12 months. Although I supported this concept when it was announced last year, the $3,000 added burden seems overwhelming to small companies. Why should we be worried about the effect of this fee increase on small companies instead of how it affects established innovators such as IBM and Apple?