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Comment by jsiaajdsdaa | Hacker News Reader

How do founders deal with the psychological stress of knowing they could be sued or patent trolled at any point in time?

This is the only reason I don't start my own company, and if I did then I would try to have VC money lying around for lawyers. It's really messed up!

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Most start ups run out of money before they are sued. Patent trolls tend to go after firms that have money to pay them off. As such, patent trolls are not a concern for most founders.

That is one option then-- lay low until you have enough money to pay them.

But what about psychotic people who are suing you for reasons of harassment? i would be really mad if the reason my business failed was legal stuff and not product market fit

A psychotic person who has the money to pay an attorney to draft a law suit....that is more unlikely that building a unicorn and it's a whole lot more productive to focus on that rather than bad actors out to harras you.

But I'm making 300k a year with no liability to myself at a big FAANG where seemingly everyone just sits around collecting money.

I would like to have a chance at making 10M running my own gig but the threat of being personally sued into oblivion is a big factor in why I haven't even entertained pursuing a public, for profit side project.

Are patent trolls really such a persistent global problem that they're a nearly guaranteed issue for startup founders? How is this even possible unless someone is quite literally using stolen IP for their business?

At least in the United States, patent trolls are professional lawyers who can serve paperwork for nearly free, have done this thousands of times, and in many cases are good friends with the judge.

In the US, anyone can sue anyone, and it costs money to fight even frivolous claims. It is one of the major reasons that if you were to look at the professions of 99% of home owners in upper middle class areas, they are laborers at large corporations.

Public liability insurance? ;)

You will end up either paying high premiums or handing your money to patent trolls. Neither option sounds optimal as a bootstrapped founder.

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