Intellectual Property: Why bother? (Morning Startup)

There is a quite healthy scepticism of IP in the startup community. It’s seen as too expensive (patents), not worth the paper it’s written on (confidentiality agreements) and too complicated (bloody lawyers). Just be first to market, build a customer base and be more passionate than the opposition.

But spending $10K on a patent application may be the best $10K you ever spend. Making sure that copyright in your software is owned by your company may be essential when seeking investment. And registering a trademark could be the difference between being the winner and loser in a crowded market.