In this article, it states that companies with less than $100M annual revenue constitute about 66% of defendants to troll suits. 55% of defendants make $10M per year or less. It seems that smaller the company, the more likely it will be easy for trolls to manipulate with smaller companies. In the article, it also states that 40% of them felt that they were targeted because of their use of another's widely available technology.
I thought this was also interesting. 35% fought this demand, while 18% settled. 22% tried to resolve the demand. So more 40%, one way or another, tried to settle or resolve the demand. This could be the reason why trolls are targeting smaller companies.
It's sad that there's possibility of being sued just because a company is small. I understand that White House is bringing out reforms to prevent patent trolls, however, I feel that many are still being targeted today due to lack of money and resources. We talked about in class how a suit will cost them much more than settling or resolving the suit. Therefore, many smaller companies with only limited resources end up going that route.
In order to promote better environment for startup companies to succeed, it's clear that something has to be done. I hope patent reform brings hope for new startups.
Article: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2146251
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ReplyDeleteI think you brought up a really interesting statistic of how out of 223 tech start-ups, 79 of them received a demand. What exactly do you mean by a non-random survey? (as in, who was the survey targeted at?) It makes sense that it is easier for trolls to manipulate smaller companies than larger ones, since they have very limited resources and funding. I feel that this is a very relevant topic to bring up, especially since there are many emerging tech start-ups in the east bay. I agree that we need to work with the government to promote a better environment for start-up companies to succeed. Thanks for sharing the statistics!
ReplyDeleteHello,
DeleteWhat I believe non random survey is that they chose units from a population that they are interested in studying. So they probably chose startups in Sillicon Valley that have received some sort of demand from patent trolls. I hope the reforms make lives better for startups in the upcoming years. It's a like being bullied out of no where.
Very interesting!
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