As patent wars escalate, business booms for those who can predict the odds

Over the last decade the number of patent lawsuits filed in the United States each year has exploded. A new study found that patent trolls, now cost American companies about $29 billion a year. The number of defendants named in these lawsuits has more than tripled in the past five years, and range from major corporations to fledgling startups. For many in the tech industry, this has become cause for serious concern.

For LexMachina, the patent crisis is a massive business opportunity, and the company has just raised a fresh $2 million led by X/Seed Capital to expand its operations. "The common wisdom when companies are hit with a patent lawsuit is to settle, because you don't know things will go in court," explains CEO Josh Becker. LexMachina draws on 130,000 court cases to provide clients with robust data on everything from the history of decisions by individual judges to the track record of law firms who handle these cases, and the outcome of previous cases dealing with similar patents. “If you are a startup in New York or San Francisco, you want to know how this judge on a rocket docket in East Texas has ruled before."