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Ars Technica: Boston University researchers have published a new paper which finds that since 1990, publicly traded companies have lost a total of $500 billion because of lawsuits brought by “non-practicing entities,” aka “patent trolls.” In the last four years, companies have lost an average of $83 billion per year, which the study’s authors say is equal to more than a quarter of U.S. industrial research and development spending.
In order to determine the losses for their study, the researchers examined the impact 1,630 patent troll lawsuits had on the market cap of those being sued. The median loss was $20.4 million, and the mean was $122 million.
