The smart move for the patent troll is to target some of these smaller companies and write license agreements in the form of "I agree to pay $20 per device sold to license this patent". $20 is nothing to a company selling Ships, Oil rigs, tunnel boring machines, etc.
Then when it comes to apple, paying $20 per iphone is suddenly rather expensive, but the troll can show the court lots of licensees all agreeing to pay that rate, and it can then be established as a reasonable rate for this specific patent.
The smart move for the patent troll is to target some of these smaller companies and write license agreements in the form of "I agree to pay $20 per device sold to license this patent". $20 is nothing to a company selling Ships, Oil rigs, tunnel boring machines, etc.
Then when it comes to apple, paying $20 per iphone is suddenly rather expensive, but the troll can show the court lots of licensees all agreeing to pay that rate, and it can then be established as a reasonable rate for this specific patent.