Innovative Financing for Innovation: For Innovative Companies to Have Adequate Access to Capital, Accounting and Lending Standards Must Be Updated to Accurately Assess the Value of Intangible Assets Such As Intellectual Property and Other Forms of Know-How (Intangible Assets‪)‬

Finding funding for a new business or idea is almost always challenging. With the recent near-collapse of the financial system, however, funding innovation is even more difficult. Credit to businesses has tightened dramatically. The market for initial public offerings is moribund, and venture capital has been reduced to a trickle. As a result, the "valley of death" between a promising idea and a marketable product appears to be even more of an unbridgeable chasm. For many innovative companies, funding to move from a promising new concept to commercialization is simply not there. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]