[hotpockets]

Will fee shifting make it too risky for small companies to protect their IP?

[chum]

Some have proposed a sort of patent "small claims" court to address these issues:

http://www.uspto.gov/ip/global/patents/comments/patent_small...

[rarw]

Probably not. Enforcing a patent is expensive (as most litigation is). If this law penalized trolls who filed worthless claims but rewarded those who were legitimately being infringed on then if anything it would make it less risky.

[hotpockets]

It sounds like the "expected" return on litigation may be positive for small legitimate startups, so that over the long run, it might be expected to work our well for small startups. However, each individual small company may not want to risk their survival on hard-to-predict judicial idiosyncrasies.

[rarw]

Sure, there are always risks with litigation but in general it is not as unpredictable as outsiders think.