Takeaway: Litigation financing may be an avenue to consider if you cannot afford to enforce your intellectual property through litigation.

It is commonly known that patent and intellectual property litigation is among the most expensive areas to litigate in today’s competitive marketplace. This may cause issues for independent inventors or small entities that cannot afford to take on the Apple and Microsoft’s of the world because they simply cannot afford to litigate to enforce their rights. The barrier to entry for litigation is a reality even if large company stole that small entity’s designs and began reproducing their invention without permission.

With that said, recently there seems to be a trend that has opened the door to litigation for these small or micro entities. That trend we speak of is litigation financing. The concept is fairly simple; a third party makes an investment in your litigation because they think you have a winning case. The goal is to allow more access to litigation and take the element of cost out of the strategy for smaller entities. Eileen Bransten, a New York Supreme Court Justice, stated: “litigation funding allows lawsuits to be decided on their merits, and not based on which party has deeper pockets or stronger appetite for protracted litigation.”