Ask HN: Do provisional patents matter for early-stage startups?

Re:Ask HN: Do provisional patents matter for early-stage sta... by josefritzishere on Monday February 09, 2026 @02:20PM (#46949652)

I work in IP. You can easily operate without patents. Patents cost money to file and maintain. Most patents exist only for marketing purposes. Enforcement also isn't cheap. So, unless the IP is perceived to be highly valuable, corporations don't bother filing the patent. Only a fraction of what's patentable ever gets patented.

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Re:Ask HN: Do provisional patents matter for early-stage sta... by SOLAR_FIELDS on Monday February 09, 2026 @06:30PM (#46953126)

Well, there’s also the fact that some organizations actually tie career progression to patents authored by the company. My brother works for a company that offers multiple technical career pathways to promotion, and one of them is essentially “obtain a software patent”

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Re:Ask HN: Do provisional patents matter for early-stage sta... by DANmode on Monday February 09, 2026 @10:01PM (#46954821)

Yeah, but who wants to be IBM?

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Re:Ask HN: Do provisional patents matter for early-stage sta... by SOLAR_FIELDS on Tuesday February 10, 2026 @07:17PM (#46969055)

You ain’t wrong. My brother works for LargeGovernmentContractor but the thesis is the same as the Broadcom’s and the IBM’s of the world in this regard

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Re:Ask HN: Do provisional patents matter for early-stage sta... by gdad on Tuesday February 10, 2026 @03:07AM (#46956701)

really helpful pov.

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