Re:Ask HN: How much should you worry about patents when deve...
by matt_the_bass on Friday December 14, 2018 @03:57PM
(#18684684)
Patents don’t prevent anyone from infringing on them. They only give the patent assignee the right to litigate. If you have no revenue, there is little monetary incentive to go after you.
IANAL but in my opinion you need to first prove to yourself that you have a product that customers want. After that you can figure out if your current approach is how you should continue to proceed. If so, you’ll then have some revenues to hire a petent attorney for some legal advice.
With all due respect, I’d be really surprised if whatever problem you’re trying to solve can only be solved one way. So if you did in fact infringe and if some patent assigned did in fact care, you could likely chose between: negotiating a license, changing your solution, giving them the finger and forcing them to litigate.
IANAL but in my opinion you need to first prove to yourself that you have a product that customers want. After that you can figure out if your current approach is how you should continue to proceed. If so, you’ll then have some revenues to hire a petent attorney for some legal advice.
With all due respect, I’d be really surprised if whatever problem you’re trying to solve can only be solved one way. So if you did in fact infringe and if some patent assigned did in fact care, you could likely chose between: negotiating a license, changing your solution, giving them the finger and forcing them to litigate.