By the way, while the article did not mention this, I looked it up and this is a case of patent infringement. So see patents are good for something. If you are

By the way, while the article did not mention this, I looked it up and this is a case of patent infringement. So see patents are good for something. If you are pitching something to large companies and the thing you are pithing is something they can make in-house, then you have to get a patent. If it is cheaper for them to copy your idea than to pay you and you don't have a patent they will copy your idea.