[munk-a]

Trolls adore it when people settle out of court - but the cost of occasionally bankrupting people to scare everyone else into compliance tends to be accepted.

Bear in mind that a lot of times the patent troll either has a practicing lawyer on staff or has an intimate relation with one - so they're considering the cost of labour rather than the market rate.

[incompatible]

If your defence is straightforward, then turning up in court and defending yourself is still a cheap option, is it not?

[gentleman11]

Without hiring a lawyer, how can you know if your defence is straightforward or not?

[jbluepolarbear]

You can hire a lawyer just to give you advice. You don’t have to retain the lawyer for the case. In a lot of cases retaining a lawyer only ends up costing 10-15 hours of their time and if you’re going to court anyways add there fees to your court costs in the counter suit.