It's probably not something a smaller company might be able to afford, and that's the entire problem with the patent troll phenomenon: it doesn't matter how valid their patents are, they're counting on it being too expensive for their victims to fight it. If settling is cheaper than fighting and winning, the troll can continue to extort others. We need companies with the means to do so to take the effort to actually defeat and invalidate the patents if we want to stop the trolls. It's all part of US justice being for sale rather than equally distributed.

What would be better if there was a legal defense fund that were to support small companies and do this for them. Or better yet: a legal system that doesn't allow this sort of predatory behaviour.