Most teams at that stage are focused on shipping and finding product–market fit. Filing patents can be expensive and slow relative to how fast products evolve.
For founders and engineers here: If you build something that could be considered technically novel but don’t file immediately, do you worry about someone else patenting something similar later? Or is that risk generally low in practice?
I’m kind of interested in what people have actually experienced.
apothegm•58m ago
The vast, vast, vast majority of early stage startups create absolutely nothing even vaguely patentable. The startup pressure cooker and focus on finding something that sells is not an environment that encourages the invention of anything meaningfully novel. If you think you’ve created something patentable, go consult with a patent lawyer. They will almost certainly tell it’s not.
And if you do create something patentable and it’s not truly central to your value proposition or competitive advantage, let the world have it. Pursuing a patent is a distraction and a waste of time for the startup unless you’re going to pivot to selling this new invention.