Unwired Planet, a patent-holding company that holds more than 2,000 patents, is about to undergo a series of court trials in the United Kingdom, Bloomberg reports.

The London trials against Huawei, Samsung, and Google, set to begin on Monday, could represent turning points for so-called "patent trolls" that have no business other than licensing or litigating patents. It's not uncommon for such companies to be based abroad, but the business model is generally reliant on US courts, where high litigation costs and little prospect of recovering attorneys fees mean that the pressure to settle patent cases is enormous. There's also an impression that the use of juries sometimes leads to larger damage awards.

In the UK, patent disputes are lengthy, overseen by specialized judges, and losers in lawsuits are often made to pay the winner's legal fees. That creates a high-cost, high-risk scenario that's unappealing to trolls.

The Unwired Planet cases will be resolved with a series of six trials set to last more than a year, Bloomberg reports. Most pure patent-licensing shops simply wouldn't have the resources to take such a risk, but Unwired Planet is a publicly traded company, allowing it greater capital take the risk.

Unwired Planet says its patents are foundational to the modern mobile Internet. In court documents, the smartphone companies being sued argue that the patents aren't valid and say that Unwired Planet is seeking excessive licensing fees.

The company was created from the patent assets that remained from a once-operating company called Openwave Systems, which created an early form of mobile Web-browsing that didn't take off. In 2012, Openwave went under and transformed itself into patent-holding company Unwired Planet.

Today, the company has 16 employees. On paper, it's based out of a small office suite in Reno, Nevada. The Unwired Planet portfolio was greatly enlarged in 2013 when it added 2,185 patents and patent applications acquired from Ericsson. Those patents included both US and international patents.

Unwired Planet sued Apple in 2013, but a judge ruled in May that Apple didn't infringe the company's patents. Unwired Planet is appealing the decision. Apple asked for $15 million in legal fees for defending that case, but US District Judge Vince Chhabria held that the case wasn't "exceptional" and Apple was not entitled to fees.

"You can call us anything you like," Unwired Planet general counsel Noah Mesel told Bloomberg. "We happen to be at the point in our business cycle where what’s left is a patent portfolio."

Huawei is up first, and told Bloomberg it would "vigorously defend its legitimate rights." Google and Samsung didn't respond to a request for comment.

The trials in the UK only involve British patents and licensing rights. Unwired Planet hasn't said how much it stands to win from the UK trials if it succeeds.