Small British companies complain UK patent system is broken

In a odd role reversal relative to the United States, small companies in the U.K. are complaining that the British patent system is "broken." Within the US, that has been the mantra of the big IT companies, but Bloomberg reports:

The U.K.’s patent system is “broken,” a group of small and medium-sized businesses said in a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron.

The letter, sent May 5, was signed by 32 companies that are members of Small Medium-sized Entity Innovation Alliance. In the letter, the organization said most small businesses in the U.K. “know only too well the failure of the patent system and have given up.”