Innovation won't save you

I wrote an article called "The quest to solve your navigation" in June 2018. 

The article mentioned a company called What3Words, which had invented a novel way to solve addressing problems by using 3 words to describe any address in the world.

What3Words was incorporated in 2013 (5 years ago).

The What3Words idea is very simple and easy to understand + very innovative.

The article also talked of companies from India like Zippr which was incorporated in 2014 (4.5 years ago). Zippr also mapped any location on the globe, but with an alphanumeric key like MWKJ7207 is Golconda fort.

But what you might not know is that 4 years ago, an open project was launched on Github/Google project page, called Plus Codes. This project also resolved the addressing system, but with alphanumeric code with a plus addendum so, 7VJ7+QH is Singapore. Looks familiar, doesn't it?

This plus codes finally became a product and was silently launched in Feb 2018 as a part of Maps.Google.com from select locations. And a little later in March 2018, it also launched in the Indian maps product.

It is now getting awesome PR as it is supposedly helping a lot of kerala flood victims find an address. Hindu Business Line did an article on disaster management apps called "digital hero". A quick read, and you can see its actually just about Plus Locations.

The point here is not to that Google developed an established concept and made it open source. If a company finds your idea useful, and if there is nothing stopping anyone from using it, it will use it.

The point here is that you may be working on an idea which is ahead of its time, and truly innovative, but that won't save you. To keep the idea alive and make it work for you is more difficult than just coming up with it.

This can happen to any business, big or small. It has happened to the best, like Microsoft office Vs. Open office, Like paid html games vs. ad supported games, Like Netscape vs Internet explorer. You will get disrupted, and its foolish to think that disruption only comes from innovation. Sometimes it also comes from size.

Few have fought Goliaths and survived, but those who learned how to survive, became the next Goliath.

It can be argued that Google could as easily have acquired any of these companies and integrated it. But it didn't. On top of it, Google built an open source project.

What do you think will happen to any company that was using this system to solve navigation and earn while doing it? What happens to investors?

Considering the penetration of android across the world and along with it Google Maps, what do you think is going to be the global standard?

So what now?

On this particular problem, the ship has sailed. You can't compete with open source backed by one of the richest companies in the world this late in the game. So, that leaves few options to exercise.

1. Protect your Intellectual assets like crazy, and that means all over the world. Because this story also could have read like, some company in Romania comes up with this solution and sells itself to a map behemoth for pennies.
2. If the core idea of your product cant be protected, move the game somewhere else : This means that suppose your core idea depends on something that cannot be patented. Then don't make that core idea your business, but move one step further on how the idea is being built into a product, and protect it like crazy. The concept of ride hailing is out, but still uber has managed to be ahead in the game, because it moved the game to the experience and the execution part of it. This game is much more resource intensive and costly, so people will not get into it easily, or if they get into it, they will either burn out or drop out.
3. Get powerful allies: If the core idea is something that is going to be taken from your hands sooner or later, then get an ally who can protect it with you. IP is a contract. Its a contract between the government and you that if anyone un-authorised uses it, the government will protect it with its law. But the law can be challenged in a court of law, and to respond to the challenge is costly. In short, protecting your IP is a costly business. So get a larger business to be interested in you, if all else fails, partner with a patent licensing company and if you are really sinking, then don't shy away from a patent troll . If you think all is anyways going to be lost, its better to win some back proactively.

Well that's all i could think of for now. Will edit and add more points based on your comments, if it's okay.

Thanks

Satyarth

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are my own and don't reflect the views of any of my employers, present or past.