valley of death
n.— «Several speakers referred to the difficulty in getting an innovation from the idea stage to the commercial stage, a gap referred to as the “valley of death.” Andrew Dearing, secretary general of the European Industrial Research Management Association, said the valley of death for a typical breakthrough is “at least 10 years wide and 20 million euros deep.”» —“UN Body Offers Guidance To Governments On Boosting IP Systems” by William New Intellectual Property Watch (Geneva, Switzerland) July 30, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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