Patent Wars Cost Society $500 Billion

A new study by three professors at the Boston University School of Law puts the cost of patent lawsuits at $500 billion in lost wealth to defendants during the 20-year period from 1990 to 2010.

The average lawsuit costs the defendant about $122 million, and the median loss is $20 million. According to the BU study, about nine percent of the lost wealth goes to what are politely known as non-practicing entities, NPEs, and more commonly known as patent trolls. The rest simply evaporates as legal fees, costs of lost business, management distraction, and diversion of resources from product development.

Of course, every out of pocket cost is revenue for somebody else. And "management distraction" and "diversion of resources from product development" is, for competitors, a "useful" development.

Patent Wars Cost Society $500 Billion