Wikipedia tells us that; In Scandinavian folklore, trolls were beings that live far from human habitation, are not Christianized, and are considered dangerous to human beings. Depending on the region from which accounts of trolls stem, their appearance varies greatly; trolls may be ugly and slow-witted, or look and behave exactly like human beings, with no particularly grotesque characteristic about them.

I have spent a good deal of time over the last two years on a lawsuit filed against SteelSeries. We were sued by a patent troll in the Eastern District of Texas, over a patent dispute related to technology in our mice. The Eastern District of Texas is a hotbed for patent litigation with 2,591 cases in 2015 - a huge number that constitutes nearly half of all new patent filings in the nation.

The Eastern District famously attracts plaintiffs because of its reputation for friendly juries and experienced judges willing to hear their cases—especially in the Marshall and Tyler Divisions. And its patent docket has soared since 2011, when Congress passed the America Invents Act (AIA), which forces plaintiffs to file individual cases against defendants instead of suing multiple parties at one time.

The patent troll didn't just sue us, but also many of our colleagues in the business including Microsoft, Dell, Logitech and about ten others. All of the other companies that got sued chose to settle their cases outside of court - essentially paying the patent troll a large amount of money to drop the case.

We on the other hand, chose to stay and fight!

After a four day jury trial that took place this week in Texas, we finally got the verdict we had hoped for; SteelSeries does NOT infringe the patent in question.

This is a huge win for us - not just monetary; It proves that we do not cave in to extortion from patent trolls and that truth will prevail!

Legislation like the America Invents Act (AIA) pushes things in the right direction, but in my mind the only way to stop these trolls is to stand strong and fight back!

I am happy to have had the pleasure of working with our world class legal team headed up by Jim Heiser of Chapman and Cutler LLP, Esha Bandyopadhyay and Josh Masur of Turner Boyd LLP and Michael Smith of Siebman, Burg, Phillips & Smith LLP.

Now I can't wait to get back to doing some actual meaningful work again!