Essays/linkedin/ we thought patents were our moat. we were wrong.

🛡️ Early on, we poured cash and time into patents, convinced they’d keep competitors at bay. The truth? Patents are necessary but not sufficient.

Deep‑tech ideas are hard to copy, but barriers erode fast. What saved us wasn’t a stack of filings—it was our relationship with early customers and our speed.

Patents protect technology; they don’t protect markets. Your real moat is understanding your users better than anyone else and iterating faster than a newcomer can file paperwork. That’s why Steve Blank’s customer development mantra—talk to customers, learn, and pivot—is more valuable than a patent lawyernotes.aquiles.me.

I’m not anti‑patent. File strategically. But don’t mistake IP for an automatic moat. Have you ever relied too much on patents? What did you learn?