Non-practicing entities (better known as patent trolls) have cost companies approximately half a trillion dollars in recent decades, according to Boston University researchers. After gauging tangible costs such as legal expenses and settlement payouts, James E. Bessen, Mike J. Meurer and Jennifer Laurissa Ford concluded that patent trolls such as Rambus have sucked about $500 billion out of innovating defendants since 1990.
That figure only includes publicly-traded companies it was derived by measuring stock market events. The theory is that if a firm's stock drops by a certain percentage following news of a lawsuit, that's how much the market believes the company will lose. Investors respond to litigation by lowering their earnings expectations, which reflects costs directly associated with the suit, lost business, settlement fees and so on.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Study: Patent trolls have cost innovators $500 billion since 1990 - TechSpot News
Author:Matthew DeCarlo
