Costs make patents inaccessible to startups.

New solutions can incorporate public domain information that was once claimed in patents that have now expired, or for which patent protection was never sought. Not all patentable information is, in fact, patented. Firms decline to patent in favor of keeping certain inventions secret, or have determined that some are not worth the financial cost of patenting. As one example, in 1976 General Electric engineers invented the compact fluorescent bulb in 1976, the spiral- shaped bulb that is now widely sold as an energy-saving device.136 When first invented, the company decided that commercialization of the spiral-shaped bulbs was cost prohibitive, and so shelved the project without filing for patent protection.137 In other instances, companies rely on alternative mechanisms, including first-to-market advantages, sales and service efforts, or a faster move up the learning curve, to establish leadership rather than patents.138 Moreover, a significant share of startups cannot afford to patent.139 One study found that only ten percent (10%) of approximately 3,000 identified major advances in various fields had been patented.140 Although the results of this study cannot readily be generalized to all types of research and development, this data underscores that many valuable solutions are in the public domain.