"We encourage people to not be afraid of the process," said Sean Kelly, the vice president of product development at Zynga. "We think it's ultimately great for small developers to be a part of the process."

Sharma also said that getting involved in defending your IP would be a bonus when going to venture capitalists for startup cash.

"People will take you more seriously as a startup for having gone through the process," he said. "It may sound like a pain in the butt to do the patent thing, but I think the coming years we will see stronger assertion of IP in the app market in a big way."

in Network World's Anti-malware section.