Ask HN: Are patents still worth it?
I remember 5-10 years ago it was seen as a big item on the startup checklist to have a few patents under your belt. Is that still the case now that open source is eating the world? Are patents even defensible?
I think it's becoming less common, both because modern startups are less likely to be producing patentable inventions, and because the US Supreme Court invalidated a wide area of software patents previously considered valid in the _Alice_ case in 2014.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patents_under_United_...