Trolls were bewailed by the bards of Old Norse myth long before they roamed the Eastern District of Texas or the Northern District of Illinois. As U.S. policy turns hostile to patent trolling, the epic battle between Nokia Oyj and IPCom GmbH may determine whether trolls return to their original stomping grounds, and repopulate Europe. “Classic U.S. trolls are looking at Europe and thinking of coming here,” says Nokia litigation head Richard Vary, “but they are waiting to see how the IPCom case works out.”

Bernard Frohwitter learned the art of patent lawyering in Houston during the 1990s, where he managed the U.S. office of Munich’s Bardehle Pagenberg, and later set up Frohwitter Intellectual Property Counselors. Back home in Germany, Bosch GmbH hired Frohwitter to license a promising portfolio of mobile phone patents. In 2007 he formed IPCom with Fortress Investment Corp., bought the patents himself, and brought claims against Nokia worth up to 12 billion euros.

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