Loser Pays would be detrimental to small businesses

[Small Business Technology Council (SBTC), January 2015, SBTC, “Patent Reform Threatens Small Business Innovation,” , accessed: 7-11-24, ES]

Loser Pays: American laws do not apply “loser pays” provisions to consumers, corporations, protected groups, or any other class of private litigants. This would induce these groups to tend to decline to enforce their legal rights. Why should inventors be singled out as the only class that should bear this burden? The result will be that small inventors will be deterred from exercising their rights and that invention and resulting jobs will dwindle. More perniciously, the smaller firms will be further deterred from investing to develop such rights, as they will need a $5‐10 million legal war‐ chest before they try to exercise any patents. The large multi‐national companies know that smaller companies cannot afford to pay the larger business’s legal costs if they lose, and so small businesses will not take the chance.