Don’t Feed the Trolls! This declaration summarizes the message which Winston & Strawn LLP attorneys Gene Schaerr and Jacob Loshin forcefully and convincingly communicated today at a Washington Legal Foundation Web Seminar, Doing Battle with Patent Trolls: Lessons from the Litigation Front Lines.
The presentation offered a powerful risk/benefit-based economic case as to why more targets of patent trolls should oppose this litigation rather than pay the “nuisance” settlement (or the “patent troll tax” as Loshin put it) which 80% of patent troll defendants end up paying.
For instance, Loshin demonstrated how patent trolls earn a 400% return on their investment if their litigation targets settle early in the process. That investment return on average plummets to -30% if such cases go to trial. Loshin’s statistics reflect that the deterrence value of fighting patent trolls is a valuable business asset which, while it requires investment, reduces long-term costs.
Schaerr, who directed the successful appeal of Hyundai Motor America’s federal trial court loss to patent troll Orion IP, offered ten lessons from the litigation front lines on fighting patent troll suits:
- Escape Texas
- Use claim construction strategically
- Pursue early dismissal and/or summary judgment
- Find uncited prior art
- Consider a re-exam
- In discovery, be cooperative where you can
- Choose a few simple jury themes
- Choose witnesses that will appeal to your jury pool
- Lay groundwork for effective appeal
- If necessary, appeal successfully