Litigation is much more expensive than that. Inter Partes Review and early summary judgment on 101 are the cheapest way to go in many circumstances. It is what is happening these days too.
Newegg claims to have spent $450,000 on the Macrosolve fight, which was about 4x the troll's initial request, but which also includes a claim against Macrosolve for legal fees. That's also more money than Macrosolve could afford to drop on a fight, basically guaranteeing them a win by outlasting the case. They've worked most of their claims down to summary dismissals or no-prejudice suit drops, so once they got the "take it to the mat" reputation established they stopped having to pay full litigation costs for most of their suits.
Review and summary judgement are definitely cheaper, but even full-litigation expenses are workable. Your accounting just has to include dropped and averted suits.
Newegg claims to have spent $450,000 on the Macrosolve fight, which was about 4x the troll's initial request, but which also includes a claim against Macrosolve for legal fees. That's also more money than Macrosolve could afford to drop on a fight, basically guaranteeing them a win by outlasting the case. They've worked most of their claims down to summary dismissals or no-prejudice suit drops, so once they got the "take it to the mat" reputation established they stopped having to pay full litigation costs for most of their suits.
Review and summary judgement are definitely cheaper, but even full-litigation expenses are workable. Your accounting just has to include dropped and averted suits.