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In my mind, the little guy would patent with a small declared value - so on the downside they wouldn't be able to litigate for large amounts. But they would have a defensive patent, and that patent would also have value for larger acquiring companies because if they believed in the validity of the patent they could apply for revaluing at higher price (at which point there would be extra funding to make sure it is valid).

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If it's not a valuable patent then big players won't respect it (cheap to litigate) and who will want to acquire it? You'll just be run over.

Yes, while it's low-valued it's not much of a deterrent to big players which is a disadvantage (depending on how often small players realistically can afford to challenge the big players legally under current system).

But by defensive usage I mean then at least you know someone else isn't going to patent your key stuff. And once you've got funding/get acquired, the patent could be declared as higher value (and additional fees paid/validation done), and then future litigation to anyone who infringed after that date could be for higher amount.

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