The federal government should provide money to help small businesses establish international IP protection, poll voters agreed by nearly two-to-one. Of respondents 62.5% agreed with industry advocates looking to Washington to help smaller companies protect their intellectual property for treatments and technologies. The rest said that the government should not get involved.
How to help is under study by the US Patent and Trademark Office, which is compiling recommendations for helping smaller businesses in and outside the life sciences gain international patent protection. Smaller biotech businesses, often cash-strapped and limited to the knowledge of their management and investors, have long struggled to protect IP in a global industry governed by patent laws and agencies that are still mostly national in scope.
