For startups in the early stages of development, securing a patent can be an easy thing to put off or forgo altogether. In the legal technology community, however, getting proprietary technology patented is perhaps not such a bad idea, especially where software development is concerned.

Ryan Alshak, founder of timekeeping software Ping, filed a preliminary patent application about nine months ago to begin the patent application process. He and the Ping team decided to move forward on the application primarily as a legal defense mechanism for his technology.

“It's definitely an asset to the company, and it's something that becomes defensible if anyone wants to copy your technology and develop in the same way you are,” Alshak said. “You don't want to put your software out there if it's susceptible to being copied without any legal protection.”