As a result of my August 8 piece on Mark Cuban’s diatribe on the need to find a way to put a stop to all of the legal wrangling over intellectual property, it should come as no surprise that I enjoy following him. In a Tweet today, Cuban pointed to some work done by Focus.com, the expert research and advice network. Entitled “Mo’ Patents, Mo’ Problems: The Patent Lawsuit Economy,” the infographics presented are jaw-dropping to say the least.

While I advise you that some of the content in the link above may be disturbing, and should not be viewed unless you are sitting down and have a calming beverage of choice at hand, I would urge you to take a look at all of the information crammed onto this page. That said, here are just a few highlights to whet your appetite:

• If all patent litigations in 2008 had been adjudicated, the total cost would have been $31,224,000,000
• Non-practicing entities, aka “Patent Trolls” have a 67 percent trial success rate
• 15 percent of patent infringement cases went to appeal and 40 percent of judgments were favorable to plaintiffs

Because compiling this data is a complex exercise, the fact that it presents 2008 stats is misleading. Clearly, a quick glance at the news in the technology industry demonstrates that there has been an exponential increase in litigation. The battles over wireless and smartphone IP involving, Oracle, Apple, HTC, Samsung (News - Alert), and a host of others probably exceeds the dollar amount of 2008. Plus, the Google acquisition of Motorola Mobility now has bloggers and pundits screaming that there has been an earthquake and a tsunami of lawsuits is heading our way. Look at poor Kodak (News - Alert) as an example of how terribly wrong things have gotten. Analysts now are saying its only path to salvation is the sale of its patents to one of the smartphone guys who need protection and a club for dealing with the other sharks, as smartphones increase their position as the photography platform of personal choice.

I will re-iterate a running theme of mine, i.e., focusing on corporate value creation through hoarding IP and then litigating rights is a sorry and possibly catastrophic substitute by U.S. companies for investing in organic innovation. However, given that high-frequency traders account for more than 60 percent of stock market volume on the average day, it does seem that the notion of actually investing is becoming quaint. Gambling and litigating are all the rage. It would be interesting to take a look at various companies’ risk management models. 

Peter Bernstein is a technology industry veteran, having worked in multiple capacities with several of the industry's biggest brands, including Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent, Telcordia, HP, Siemens, Nortel (News - Alert), France Telecom, and others, and having served on the Advisory Boards of 15 technology startups. To read more of Peter's work, please visit his columnist page.