I'm currently developing a web app and had a thought last night that one of the pieces of functionality I created might be novel enough to be granted a patent.

This led me to searching https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/ and finding https://patents.google.com/ where I think I discovered there are existing active patents at Big Tech company(s) around the area that I'm working in.

How much should I be concerned about potentially infringing on others patents? Does anyone have any experience / war stories of how things might play out?

I realise being sued for patent infringement is one of those “good problems to have”, but it is something in the back of my mind (especially knowing that patent trolls have come after some of the larger companies in my space).