Reject evidence about patents broadly – they have different effects on different industries

//DH

Finally, this study’s most important caveat is both a limitation and a strength of the empirical design. These findings are relevant to a specific group of patents—business-methods software—and it would be a mistake to extrapolate too far outside this context. There is every reason to think that patents play different roles in different industries, as a variety of the studies discussed in Part II indicate. Indeed, when these results are put next to those from prior studies, important distinctions begin to emerge.170 Farre-Mensa, Hegde, and Ljungqvist find that the average effect of patent approval on the likelihood of funding is 50%, but when contrasted, the results of the two studies suggest that there is important heterogeneity between industries.171 Startups in certain sectors of information technology are substantially more likely to receive investment after their first patent is approved (in their study), while in biochemistry (also in their study) and business-methods software (in this one), patent approval appears to have no effect.172 Given these differences, any “one-size-fits-all” reform proposal is inapposite.173