Troll suit impact minimal—rare, no higher costs

Second, critics gripe about the costs of troll lawsuits. 42 Bessen and Meurer (2014) estimated the sum of direct costs on defendants of nonpracticing entity (including troll) litigation to be approximately twenty-nine billion dollars. 43 Beyond direct lawsuit expenses, opponents argue that troll patent assertions also impose indirect costs, such as the disruption of business operations and loss of market share. 44 When examining the time period from January 2007 to October 2011, Bessen et al. (2011) found that defendants' total loss of wealth resulting from non-practicing entity litigation was eighty-three billion dollars per year. 45

[*43] While patent cases financially burden defendants, they also necessitate large capital investments from plaintiffs including trolls--a point that critics have failed to recognize. 46 For a median-value patent lawsuit between one and twenty-five million dollars, a plaintiff pays about two million dollars in litigation costs. 47 Unless a troll believes that the expected value of the case exceeds the expenses, it will not initiate the legal action. 48 Further, there is no empirical evidence that suggests troll litigation imposes higher costs on defendants than that of practicing entities. In fact, patent assertions by practicing entities are likely more burdensome for defendants due to the discovery needed to investigate these entities' products or services. 49