1. Patent pendency times are dropping rapidly these days. The large delays in the early 2000's were allegedly due to an informal internal "reject, reject, rejec

1. Patent pendency times are dropping rapidly these days. The large delays in the early 2000's were allegedly due to an informal internal "reject, reject, reject" policy at the USPTO instituted by the director at the time. 2. Patents may not be important to startups, but having patent applications certainly is. They help a lot in securing VC financing. There are multiple studies and surveys showing this. One less obvious reason why VCs may be interested in patents is studies also show a strong correlation between having patents and making successful exits.