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Do we need to care for patents filed by big brothers?

Asked by: 431 views Legal

How much we should care as an Indian entrepreneur for patents filed by big brothers? I just read about patents filed by apple to gain exclusive rights (http://alturl.com/weyrk) and wondering how it affects to companies who is doing business in India and/or outside India, having headquarter in India. Most of the time, we don’t know what is patented and what to do if we still need that feature? As per my knowledge, we don’t have such patent filing in India for software related stuff. Lets share your views.

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4 Answers



  1. Krunal Sabnis on Nov 07, 2011 Reply

    But, In case if start up is working on an idea which might be some where under development by some one else.then the first comer will be winning in some aspects.
    Isn’t it the case, during the process of filing patent only one can know whether the idea is unique till date and worth putting efforts ?? Or is there any way one can confirm the uniqueness of it.

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  2. tarundua on Sep 04, 2010 Reply

    In India specifically no you don’t have to worry about patents.

    http://www.paulgraham.com/softwarepatents.html
    <quote>
    We tell the startups we fund not to worry about infringing patents, because startups rarely get sued for patent infringement. There are only two reasons someone might sue you: for money, or to prevent you from competing with them. Startups are too poor to be worth suing for money. And in practice they don’t seem to get sued much by competitors, either. They don’t get sued by other startups because (a) patent suits are an expensive distraction, and (b) since the other startups are as young as they are, their patents probably haven’t issued yet. [3] Nor do startups, at least in the software business, seem to get sued much by established competitors. Despite all the patents Microsoft holds, I don’t know of an instance where they sued a startup for patent infringement. Companies like Microsoft and Oracle don’t win by winning lawsuits. That’s too uncertain. They win by locking competitors out of their sales channels. If you do manage to threaten them, they’re more likely to buy you than sue you.
    </quote>

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  3. AshishSinha0 on Sep 04, 2010 Reply

    +1 – Agree with Tarun.
    Unless your entire business revolves around IP licensing, you need not worry so much about the patents from big cos.

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  4. pratyushp on Sep 04, 2010 Reply

    I think Ashish’s and Tarun;s comments are very apt. I dont think you need to worry much about patents – as you might have noticed the Biggies do it themselves – look at Paul Allen suing all and sundry.

    And I think a formal cease and desist will work wonders for your publicity. Bottomline – dont worry about it.

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