The June Rundown

Three things to know about your clients’ patent litigation risk

  • Patent litigation is a bigger and more expensive problem than they realize.
  • It’s a risk to their businesses that can be insured.
  • Companies that use technology—not just those that make or sell technology—are prime litigation targets.

 

Getting a step ahead of—and protecting—your clients

Companies often get blindsided by patent troll litigation because they don’t understand their risk and are unprepared. As their adviser, you can help them to understand the risk that patent trolls pose to their operation, and how to close this potentially multimillion-dollar gap in their coverage.

RPX can provide an accurate analysis of any company’s patent risk profile. How? RPX is the only patent litigation insurance provider that tracks patent litigation and market trends, tapping into its own proprietary database—RPX Search—and team of experts on patents and litigation activity. RPX uses this intelligence to evaluate patent risk across sectors and business types, and also to provide unique protection against litigation available nowhere else.

This unique insurance protection from RPX goes well beyond a traditional claims-paying policy. As a leading acquirer of patent rights, RPX is able to act on behalf of insureds to take risky patents out of the hands of patent trolls, thus removing their risk of litigation. This, combined with our active claims management allows companies to keep legal costs down and resolve infringement assertions more quickly and affordably. Patent litigation insurance from RPX:

  • Caps exposure to patent litigation costs – both legal and settlement
  • Reduces per-case costs through claims support by ~60%
  • Simplifies case management through our litigation expertise

 Insured just in time: a near-miss that could have cost a company millions

Through RPX Insurance, a company that obtained patent litigation coverage just eight weeks before it was sued for infringement saved more than $250,000 in legal and settlement costs—and avoided multimillion-dollar litigation with no guaranteed outcome.

On average, RPX Insurance saves companies dealing with a patent litigation 50% on total resolution costs. In this case, our insured—a networking company in the energy sector—was sued by an aggressive patent troll for infringement in a litigation campaign that hit more than 50 other defendants.

RPX provided its analysis of the plaintiff and the patents at issue to legal counsel hand-chosen for the client. For defense costs at an estimated 90% savings to our insured, counsel used RPX’s intelligence as negotiating ammunition to resolve the case in less than 90 days at a fraction of the cost paid by other non-insured defendants.

Question of the Month

Do my clients really have patent litigation risk?

Yes. Any company that makes, sells or even just uses technology is at risk of being sued for patent infringement. Patent risk is far more pervasive than most observers—even GCs and corporate risk managers—realize.

Every year, thousands of companies are accused of patent infringement, either directly or through shared liability with their customer companies, with resolution costs potentially in the millions of dollars. The most pervasive type of patent risk comes from patent trolls, entities that acquire patents to be used in broad monetization campaigns against dozens of companies accused of infringement. Each year on average, some 2,500 companies are sued by an NPE, and roughly half are being sued for the first time. Most of these are smaller companies, with annual revenues of less than $100 million. These companies are the least prepared to handle this risk on their own.

Patent litigation risk is an insurable corporate risk like any other. But accurately assessing that risk requires unique patent litigation and transaction data, hands-on experience dealing with patent litigation plaintiffs (including patent trolls), and in-depth understanding of technology and intellectual property trends. RPX is the only insurance provider that has this data and the necessary expertise to quantify the extent and severity of your clients’ risk—and to close their gap in coverage.

 

For more information, please review our Patent Litigation Insurance Brochure.