It appears that 2016 saw a surprising and dramatic drop in patent litigation filings. As reported by Richard Lloyd of IAM Magazine,[1] recent studies released by the intellectual property firms Unified Patents[2] and RPX confirmed patent litigation filings were down almost 25% in 2016 from the prior year, the lowest volume of cases since 2011. Paradoxically, however, the risk of a patent lawsuit being brought against middle market companies may be higher than before.