Bangalore: With patent wars taking the top spot in headlines these days, it is not just the tech companies that are following the trend, instead startups have also indulged into such wars. And, they are not alone; they are backed up well by their venture capitalists.

A group looking after many other technology firms is initiating this battle and is representing start ups mostly universities.

They are also known as ‘patent trolls’ and are extremely vigilant against entrepreneurs and venture capitalists asserting patent infringements. They have received their nick name for their habit of demanding licensing fees from businesses.

Previously, these groups used to target large corporate houses for the huge amount of compensation, but off late their primary target has been the startups that have raised large amounts of money. But these startups are also giving equal fight rather than giving up in front of patent suit-filers. Winning these patents becomes essential for these startups as often it brings a do or die situation for them.

Some of  the startups that have faced such petitions are cloud startup Box, Gilt Group, Hipmunk.

These battles are more expensive than being ugly as sometimes patent holders seek millions of dollars in compensation for their technology. But the entrepreneurs of new startups do not buy the idea of paying up instantly and instead prefer fighting against it. Taking a patent through trial alone costs nearly $2 million and lasts at least 2 to 3 years. But giving up in such cases might give way to future claims , thus, arguments on how to react to such cases do not seem to yield results.