MAY 2007
The ultimate leverage tacticians
The US has, until now, been the preferred habitat of the patent troll. But assertive licensing companies are becoming increasingly aware of how they can use Europe's fragmented system of patent rules to their negotiating advantage, explain William Cook and Dafydd Bevan
Patent litigation is all about leverage. Leverage in the market, in licensing negotiations or at the very least in settlement discussions. Recent experiences across Europe have shown that many hi-tech industry players are using cutting-edge tactics in search of that leverage; most of those players are patent owners; many of them are so-called patent trolls. But whatever you call them, companies across the technology and life sciences sectors can learn a lot from them about offensive or defensive litigation strategies.
The rest of this article is available to subscribers only. Subscribe today for full access to this article.
Alternatively take a free trial, giving you access to the current issue's contents*
If you are already a subscriber, please log in below to access the rest of this article.
*excludes some surveys and articles.