[olefoo]

Yes. Think of it this way at $2000 USD an hour ( cheap for a top law firm with the relevant expertise ) $600K USD is only 300 hours of representation. Figure roughly 10 hours a week and suddenly 6 months of negotiations looks damn near impossible for anyone less than a multinational.

Patents are one of the few areas of the law where it's cheaper to attack than defend. And at present they are the greatest threat to the most dynamic sectors of an otherwise sclerotic economy.

Any politician that is not actively pushing to reform the patent issuance and defense process is blasting the seed corn with a blowtorch. Burning the future.

[elangelcentral]

you can hire a very very good patent litigator for $700 an hour. Some big names charge as much as $1000 but I know of no one who charges anything close to $2000. my rate as a fifth year associate at a 'top' firm varies a little by case and client but is generally around $500.

[mgkimsal]

I was thinking that, and the $2k/hour does seem high on the estimate side, but consider how many people may have been on the case.

A colleague was telling me a story of using an area firm to collect a debt, and complained about the billing. Their attorneys were >$200/hour, and they'd often do 'status update' phone calls with more than one attorney on the line. My colleague just grimaced on these calls doing mental accounting of ... "well, that was a $600 call.... there was an $800 call, etc".

If there were, say, 3 people doing some work at... $250/hr, $600k can still go pretty fast (definitely less than 6 months of part time work).