Patent Worth It?
I have a friend who was in YC and he said software patents are a waste of time. He said in his entire career he's never met or known someone to enforce a software patent. Thoughts?
I have a friend who was in YC and he said software patents are a waste of time. He said in his entire career he's never met or known someone to enforce a software patent. Thoughts?
A message from the trenches:
- My startup was acquired a few years ago
- Part of acquisition was to raise a patent for the core of the solution, the patent was issued in USA and UK
- They then proceeded to mismanage and fail the startup
- The startup is in zombie mode, with 2 years of cash left
- I have left them
Now I'm in a situation where I want to do it again, but fix some key issues, but due to the patent, it keeps me locked out of the core approach to the solution.
Yes, I have a way to re-invent the core and develop a new solution, but I'd be dancing very close to a fire of litigation that I cannot afford.
My observations after this process are:
- Patents protect the patent holder, not the patent creator
- Company Secrets are a cleaner way of doing business
- You don't have to tell anyone how a Company Secret works, keep it a secret and you're fine
- Secret approaches to software development are hard to enforce if you have an on premise solution
- Cloud based SaaS solutions aren't always the best way for every application type (mine was in the Cyber Security space)
Edited for formatting I would strongly discourage a Patent and go down the company secrets path.
It protects who owns your company from having core staff relaunch their own solution.
You could argue that it stops some competitors, but in reality they just have to develop a solution that doesn't align with 'every one' of your patent claims and they can bypass you, if they have legal funds to fight you.
The thing about company secrets is that once they're exposed (or guessed, or reverse engineered), then anyone can use them. This is essentially security through obscurity, but for ideas. It's not solid.
In particular, it's not a protection against an employee leaving and starting another company that does the same thing. As the employee, you thing that's good, but a business owner would think it's bad.
I know, that viewpoint doesn't help you personally. (Also, many times patents are overkill.) But a company owner may really not like your solution, because from their position, the weaker protections are a threat vector.
It's true, once a secret is exposed then you become copy-able.
But in reality it's more complex than that, because the secret maker has the advantage of momentum and someone copying you only has a snapshot in time (when they saw how you do your magic).
Fighting patents are extremely expensive, and ensuring your product stays locked to your patent is equivalent to circling your wagons around the patent. The world moves on, new technologies are released, new languages, now you are scared to move forward because protecting your patent means you have to stay locked to that idea.
I would never patent software again
There have been patent enforcements in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars, against companies that are household names. Your friend is incorrect.
Doesn't the existence of patent trolls invalidate this?
It does not invalidate that they are a costly waste of time, most of the time, caused by fear; as all weapons are.