the report matches patents granted between and to administrative databases of firms and workers housed at the us census bureau using inventor information in addition to the patent assignee firm name to improve on previous efforts linking patents to firms patenting is a relatively rare event among small firms but most us patenting firms are nevertheless small and patenting is not as rare an event for the youngest firms compared to the oldest firms patenting firms are more likely to create jobs in their first five to years after grant and less likely to destroy jobs longer term than those without