NPE Risk in 2026: Defensive Infrastructure, Cost-Effective Resolutions & Litigation Strategy

With non-practicing entities now involved in over 80% of US tech-based patent cases, NPE risk has become one of the defining strategic challenges for tech in-house teams in 2026. Falling PTAB institution rates and a corresponding rise in ex parte reexamination requests are reshaping how NPEs structure campaigns and how defendants respond. This session brings together senior in-house counsel and litigators to examine how tech companies are managing NPE risk in practice, from early-stage defensive infrastructure and portfolio management through to active litigation strategy.

• Building defensive infrastructure: prior art libraries, portfolio mining, and competitor analysis
• Early case strategy and cost-effective resolution: venue challenges, when to settle, and how to benchmark NPE settlement values.
• Examine shifting invalidity strategy at the PTAB - when each tool is the right one, and what's working under the current discretionary denial environment.
• The role of litigation funding in NPE economics, and what defendants need to know about funder disclosure and discovery