I've been looking into a B2B SaaS concept that I'm really interested in developing that will solve a pressing problem for the public sector. I was brainstorming product development and researching the scalability of the solution and competition when I came across a seemingly huge legal risk. Somebody already has a patent on that specific software concept (a type of workflow management software) and a very similar product exists in the market. I was pretty disappointed that someone was already doing what I wanted to do and basically had ownership of the idea already, and is targeting similar customers.
How can software competition and innovation exist in an environment like this? The problem still persists and the addressable market remains huge. Of course my product is going to be different in a lot of aspects, created in a different programming language and have different targeting strategies; but the conceptual grounding is the same, so I would essentially be a competitor.
I have two issues that are bothering me:
- The details of the patent are ridiculously broad and vague (filed in the early 2000s - since then, innovation has picked up exponential speed). Do they have ownership over that entire niche software category?
- They already have 5-6 competitors that follow the same business model. How do these exist when the idea is patented by a single company. What are the loopholes that prevent them from getting into legal trouble?
Has anyone else faced a similar situation/dillemma, and how did you go about your idea and what made you follow through with it? I'm confused on whether I should continue to invest in my concept - I can't afford to be sued by someone for infringing their patent.
[link] [comments]
