Is The Lone Coder Dead?

CyNRG writes "The little guy. The one-person software company. Can it still exist today? That's me. I'm once again, after many years, writing my own commercial software to sell. A few things have changed: the patent feeding frenzy. This is my main concern. My perception is that one must verify that you don't infringe on any patents when developing new cool software, and that the explosion of patents granted by the USPTO has reached epic proportions. If this perception is true, then that makes it almost impossible for the Lone Coder to create something new that doesn't infringe on other patents. The amount of money required to perform the due diligence research seems like it would be greater than the amount of money needed to develop the software, or even the total revenues that the software could ever generate. Please someone tell me I'm wrong!" Is he?

Comments

Not dead yet

[saddino]

The little guy. The one-person software company. Can it still exist today?

Yes. Well, at least so far I'm doing pretty well. But it's only been a year, so I suppose death is still possible.

On patents: Don't worry. You'll only have to be concerned about infringement if 1) you actual infringe a patent and 2) your creation becomes huge (read: popular) and makes the waves that bring in the sharks. And if/when that happens, you'll be able to afford lawyers of your own. Do protect (copyright/trademark/patent) everything you do.

On business: Come up with novel ideas and spend the time on executing them well. Think of niche markets that require solutions. Little steps, not big ones.

Good luck.