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Ask HN: Worth filing provisional patent for micro-ISV product?

1 points by ttd ↗ HN
Hello HNers,

I'm going to (hopefully) be releasing my first commercial software product fairly soon. The lawyers I've talked to have recommended that I file a provisional patent for the software before it becomes publicly available. This is my first foray into the business world, so I don't know what's typical here.

I come from an academic background, and I can say that there's nothing publication worthy about this software, which makes me doubt its patentability. It's also quite expensive to get a lawyer to do the filing. Can anyone share some wisdom or experience with this?

Perhaps relevant details: I am in the US, working alone, with no outside investors.

1 comment

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siegel
Publication-worthy and patentable are two separate things. So, I wouldn't approach from that perspective. Not to over simplify, but software is patentable if it is new, useful, and not obvious given what has been done before.

Once you make the software publicly available, you have one year to patent it in the U.S. Other countries don't grant this one-year grace period. So, foreign patent rights depend on filing before you make the software publicly available.

I asked my colleague, who is a patent lawyer, his thoughts on this and he recommends just filing a full patent application, not a provisional patent application. A provisional patent application isn't cheap either. And you have to file the full application within a year anyway. So, it's just added costs, deadlines, and administrative hassles.

Hope this is helpful.