Last time I did a startup, it was made very clear to me that having IP was effectively a requirement; without it, our chances of getting investment money were e

Last time I did a startup, it was made very clear to me that having IP was effectively a requirement; without it, our chances of getting investment money were enormously lower, and our likely value at M&A or IPO would be lower as well. In other words, not getting a patent would significantly decrease the chances of success, and the eventual value of the company. So I applied. The short version of the story: it was a revolting, morally abhorrent, tedious, timewasting and unbelievably expensive process. It costs $15,000 to apply for a preliminary patent which offers no protection, but does set the date of your priority. From the date you file the preliminary patent, you have 1 year to file the all-up version or all rights expire and you can't get them back. Doing this second version would have cost $50,000. Throughout the application process, the lawyers made very clear that: 1) We wouldn't get approved or denied for 4-5 years. 2) We wouldn't ever know until the patent was actually granted if someone else had already filed one on it that had priority over ours, because some patents are not visible to a search. 3) The patent was going to be useless to us in court, because a) we would not have the money to defend it and b) we had probably invalidated it anyway by discussing the idea in public and/or having a publicly-visible (if unpublished) alpha version available before the patent application was filed. 4) Whatever protection it did grant was only in the USA; international protection was an entirely different ball of wax that we'd need to deal with separately, and probably couldn't have gotten or paid for even if we had wanted to. Tell me how this does not describe an utterly broken system that discriminates against small companies?