The company did what American entrepreneurs have done for centuries. It invented something, patented it and built a business around it. Then, the company’s intellectual property was stolen.

Its livelihood under fire, the company sued. But the entities that stole the intellectual property challenged, employing a relatively new legal tactic in the world of IP and kicking off a nasty and lengthy battle. This is an increasingly common situation for American inventors of all sizes, and there is a cruel irony to it: the new technique stems from 2011’s America Invents Act (AIA), federal legislation designed, in part, to reduce the overall cost and duration of patent litigation.