Comment by rcmorin

I'd go further. Patents are nice to haves for VCs and investors and look pretty on glossy business plans (look at our shiny algorithms and wireframes!). Don't bet the success of your company on your patent portfolio. The fact is, no startups out there succeed in the long run because of their proprietary technology (think facebook, myspace, youtube, yahoo, google, flickr). Even if something is "rocket science" and very hard to build, it might keep your competition at bay for a while. But once, you're successful, they'll always find a way to do it. So, what can you do? Figure out your sustainable competitive advantage. What is the rocket science that will insulate your startup from big competitors? I think that is the angle worth exploring here.