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→Bessen, Meurer: The Direct Costs From NPE Disputes (2012)
====Findings====
*definition of non-practicing entities: **"parties who own and sometimes assert patents but do not practice the technology covered by their patents"**"individuals and firms who own patents but do not directly use their patented technology to produce goods or services, instead asserting their patents against companies that do produce goods and services"
*"the estimated direct, accrued costs of NPE patent assertions totaled $29 billion in 2011"
*"much of this burden falls on small and medium-sized companies"
====Data Sources====
*"We present answers to these questions based on a unique survey of defendant companies and a comprehensive database of NPE litigation. The survey, which covers 82 firms who mounted 1,184 defenses against NPE litigation, is unique in three ways[developed by RPX]."*Survey*includes defendant companies that are privately held, including small firms**reveals costs associated with cases in which NPE patents are asserted but which are resolved before a lawsuit is filed**provides aggregated information about NPE patent license fees
*"Between February and April 2012, RPX invited about 250 companies to participate in a survey of their NPE-related costs. The pool of invitees included RPX clients and nonclient companies with whom RPX has relationships."
**used RPX NPE Lawsuit Database's definition of NPE: patent assertion entities, individual inventors, universities, and non-competing entities
**82 out of 250 provided data on lawsuits and of these, 46 also provided data on non-litigation patent assertions and related costs
*Of 1,184 defenses, 784 (66%) resolved by adjudication or settlement
NPE Lawsuit Database
*based on cases coded "830 Patent" in the PACER database (maintained by Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
*uses broad definition of NPE (e.g. includes universities), criticized for overstating costs
**counterarguments: only about of 1% of NPE lawsuits come from universities; universities still create social costs when they litigate patents
====Critiques====
====Other Findings====
===Government Accountability Office: Assessing Factors That Affect Patent Infringement Litigation Could Help Improve Patent Quality===
