Small inventors are not filing suits against dozen of defendants in carefully chosen jurisdictions. Often, they'll just target the top few companies breaching t

Small inventors are not filing suits against dozen of defendants in carefully chosen jurisdictions. Often, they'll just target the top few companies breaching the patent. They aren't looking to make a living on patent settlements, they're looking to make a living on the technology they invented. Why not? Simply because small inventors have to pay retail price for their lawyers, whereas the patent trolls typically are (or have regular full time) lawyers. There's nothing inherent in the "small-inventor-ness" of the plaintiff that makes them file suit in certain patterns. Therefore, a small inventor may get a better deal either selling the patent to the manufacturing company or making good on the threat to sell it to a trolling firm who will aggressively seek to ruin them. Better that than waste their life savings on legal expenses that will likely drag on for years.