Imagine inventing something, patenting it, building a successful company around it — and then seeing a much larger rival steal your idea.
For too many inventors and entrepreneurs, that's not a hypothetical. It's a nightmare they have lived through.
These days, instead of responsibly buying out smaller inventors or licensing their patents, some large companies find it more economical to simply copy the underlying technologies and fend off patent infringement claims in court by expanding and extending costly litigation — a bully tactic designed to overwhelm and outlast less well-funded innovators.
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