К слову, о патентах в штатах
«So let's say you can afford the time and expense to file a patent - remember this will take months of your time and tens of thousands in fees - what risk mitigation does that patent provide?
Let's say a big company decides your invention is worth a few bucks, and copies it. The point at which you know this is when it's on the market and getting attention.
You can threaten litigation. You need to be aware that a patent lawsuit is likely to cost you on the order of a couple of million dollars and take 2-3 years to resolve, so the threat is all you have. Any large company will have made a risk analysis and understand the likelihood of you being able to enact that threat. Their lawyers will probably have a good laugh at your expense.
Even if you could afford to litigate, the chances are that in copying your idea key elements of the implementation will be materially changed, and unless your patent is overly-broad (which means, unlikely to bear up in court) the chances of you winning an action are small.»/r/hwstartupsкакое бесполезное занятие.