This is exactly why Slack is not a defensible product. 1) The UI/interaction/UX can (and obviously will) be replicated, which has been slack's biggest value proposition. 2) There's no "stickiness" for companies. None of the data in chat is really a "system of record" and the switching costs are minimal. 3rd party bots/integrations are the only thing that really make it sticky for companies. 3) The IP isn't really all…
I think you are overly discounting the advantage for Slack having done this for 4 years already.