By Russell Binns (July 27, 2017, 11:35 AM EDT) -- Given that in my day job, I work for a nonprofit organization that helps companies mitigate risk from unwanted patent litigation and assertions, I have a particularly good vantage point across multiple industrial sectors as to what can go wrong when a company ignores patent risk, and as to the positive benefits that can accrue to those that put in place proactive patent protection strategies. The costs associated with intellectual property litigation are hard to deny. The average cost of IP litigation can easily range from $2 million to $5 million, depending on what's at stake, and even the cost to invalidate patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is not too shabby, running between $250,000 and $500,000....