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Comment by GFischer | Hacker News Reader

I disagree about the amount of money needed to bootstrap (for the kind of ideas VCs invest on, not for niche products or lifestyle businesses I mean).

Patents aren't worth the paper they're printed on unless you have money to defend them, and are very likely to be overturned in court without that (OTOH there are some ridiculous patents that the patent-holders have enough money to make them stick).

Going with your hypothetical model, once you've burned out your 50.000 ramp, then what?

I'm trying to build my own product, and without outside investment it's freaking hard.

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> Patents aren't worth the paper they're printed on unless you have money to defend them

Exactly. This is something I think most don't understand. Patents give you the right to sue. That's it. They don't provide any "protection" beyond that.

It's like freedom of speech. You have the freedom to say whatever you want but the first amendment does not offer any protection from the consequences of your speech. In other words, say the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong place and you might just get beaten into a pulp. You had the absolute right to say whatever you wanted but no protections beyond that.

>Exactly. This is something I think most don't understand. Patents give you the right to sue. That's it. They don't provide any "protection" beyond that.

They give you the ability to credibly threaten to sue as well and reach a big settlement without a lot of expenditure. You can also sell a patent to a competitor who needs it.

I have a feeling you've never spent a significant amount of time dealing with IP and patent attorneys.

You can't threaten to sue. That can backfire in a major way, having lawsuits filed against you.

The idea of reaching big settlements with minimal expenditure's does not align with reality. This simply don't work that way, particularly if you are up against a large or well-funded company.

The first thing an attorney is going to ask for is a retainer somewhere in the range of $100K to $250K to get started. Whatever they ask for, they are likely to tell you they will not move forward unless you can commit to $250K at a minimum to pursue a case.

They don't do this because they are greedy, they do it because this is expensive and they don't want you to burn through $100K and then discover you'll need more, don't have it and you got nothing for your $100K.

Selling IP is an entirely different conversation. Yes, patents can be worth millions, tens of millions, even without a real product behind them.

well assuming you have something to demonstrate the value you are trying to provide for that $50k ramp, you should be putting time into attracting organic (non-paid) interest in your product from people who suffer from the problem you are trying to solve. You may need to also be searching for a technical or marketing co-founder depending on your skill set.

but still, the heavy vc money only comes if they smell a chance at forming a monopoly with your idea - either thanks to patents, user lock in or having a plan that includes high barriers to entry after one gets the market

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