That's also what the founder instinctively suggests. I don't disagree. But my posting here stems from certain concerns:
1. BigCo can easily outlawyer us
2. Tangentially related to 1, BigCo is likely to own a classic 'portfolio' which could be unleashed on us. While many individual patents in the portfolio might be of dubious validity, fighting them off will be a very expensive game.
You are probably not going to like what I am going to tell you, but as a small company fighting a large company with lawyers you will lose even if you are in the right. The big company will out spend and delay you until your money runs out.
In my opinion the best you can hope for is to be credible enough pain that it is cheaper and easier to buy you out rather than fight you. Rather than fight directly look for the soft underbelly.
A fight there'll be. Too many in favor.
Any clues where I could get info on past instances like this or examples of underbelly tactics would be much appreciated...
Reason I posted here (with a throwaway account) was I hoped (based on the crowd here, and certain comments I'd seen in the past alluding to related first/second hand experiences) to hear from someone who had encountered this sort of situation before.