Patent claims

When a tech company gets hit with a patent infringement lawsuit, the odds are high it will settle. So-called patent trolls - businesses or individuals who buy older patents, then sue infringing companies in search of big payouts - win more than half of cases that go to trial. a White House report says more than 100,000 companies were threatened with infringement suits last year by businesses whose sole mission is to extract royalty revenue, and the Government Accountability Office says those outfits files 19 percent of all patent lawsuits from 2007 to 2011. In  cases that went to trial in 2012, licensors were awarded a median $11.2 million per case, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study. (Bloomberg Businessweek October 28 - November 3, 2013 P.41)