Changes

*"We estimate that firms accrued $29 billion of direct costs in 2011. Moreover, although large firms accrued over half of direct costs, most of the defendants were small or medium-sized firms, indicating that NPEs are not just a problem for large firms."**"Direct costs include the cost of legal services, license fees, and other costs incurred in response to NPE litigation risk"*"The median company sued had $10.8 million in annual revenues. 82% of the defendants had less than $100 million in revenue and these accounted for 50% of the defenses. Small and medium-sized companies account for 37% of the accrued direct costs."*"[W]e concluded [in the 2011 paper] that much of the cost borne by technology companies as they defend against NPE lawsuits is a social loss and not a mere transfer"*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"*"publicly traded NPEs likely cost small and medium-sized firms more money than these NPEs transfer to inventors"*"the distribution of costs imposed by NPEs is highly skewed, probably because NPEs pursue a range of different business strategies"*"In 2011, 2150 unique companies were forced to mount 5842 defenses in lawsuits initiated by NPEs"