David V. Goliath Inventors invent. Big companies steal. And you can't fight it because you don't have the money to win--or can you?

Big companies stealing inventors' ideas isn't news. Butlone inventors winning large judgments against those companiesis.

Historically, individual inventors don't sue majorcorporations for one reason: They don't have deep enoughpockets to pay for protracted and expensive legal battles.

Litigation, of course, is expensive. But suing a big company forpatent infringement or misappropriation of trade secrets is averitable wallet-buster. Cases drag on for years. Hundreds, if notthousands, of hours are spent in discovery, resulting in mountainsof paper. According to the AIPLA, litigation costs in a patentinfringement suit, from discovery through appeal, can range from$793,000 to about $2.5 million.