Original “Patent Troll” May Call It Quits, Says There’s No Money in it

RayNiro, one of the lawyers who pioneered the wave of contingent-fee patent litigation, says he’s ready to exit the business.

“The stand-alone patent case is dead on arrival, and I don’t think we’re unique,” Niro told Crain’s Chicago Business.

Patent litigation dropped by roughly 20 percent in 2014, and patent lawsuits by “non-practicing entities,” also known as patent trolls, dropped by nearly 25 percent. Those trolls filed about 3,700 lawsuits in 2013, and 2,800 in 2014, according to data from RPX’s annual report (PDF).