Patents are expenses that a startup should not spend. There are too few upsides. And if you need to defend yourself against a bigger player or patent troll, you are bancrupt anyways
Says person who never started a venture backed startup. Ignore this poster. VCs want to invest in companies with moats. Depending on the domain, you may require one or more patents and potentially a Freedom To Operate.
There are plenty of upsides. Patents are assets that cost much less to obtain than their value. Even small companies should be able to afford one patent application per quarter.
Put IP protection in the budget just like any other cost-of-doing-business expense.
