Troll Chooses UK Venue For Infringement Litigation

Unwired Planet, a non-practicing entity that holds more than 2,000 patents, is about to begin a series of court trials in the United Kingdom. “Patent trolls” generally sue in U.S. courts where high litigation costs and little prospect of recovering attorneys fees mean that the pressure to settle is enormous. In the UK, patent disputes are long and losers routinely pay the winner’s legal fees, a scenario that’s unappealing to trolls, but Unwired Planet is a publicly traded company with enough capital to take the risk. The London trials against Huawei, Samsung, and Google begin Monday, Oct. 5.