Valve just won a courtroom fight that could scare off patent trolls for years.
To understand why this matters, you have to rewind to 2016, the year in which Valve Corporation signed a sweeping settlement with inventor and “patent troll” Leigh Rothschild. The agreement granted Valve a perpetual, royalty-free license to his patent portfolio. In plain English, Valve paid for peace, and for a while, that peace held.
Then in 2022, one of Rothschild’s companies sued Valve anyway, targeting technology tied to Steam. In 2023, Rothschild’s lawyers sent another claim over US Patent No. 8,856,221, despite the earlier deal. Valve decided it was done playing defense, and instead of cutting another check, it sued back, arguing Rothschild and several affiliated entities acted in bad faith and breached the 2016 agreement.
On February 17, 2026, a federal jury in Seattle sided with Valve on every major point.
Valve wins rare anti-patent troll verdict
The jury found that Rothschild and his associated entities violated Washington’s Patent Troll Prevention Act and the Consumer Protection Act. It also agreed that they’d breached the 2016 licensing agreement.
The reported damages were around $152,000, but it’s especially rare because Washington’s anti-patent troll law had rarely faced a full jury trial. Valve pushed the case through and secured a verdict that showed companies can fight back under state law instead of settling quietly.
The court also allowed Valve to pursue Rothschild personally, not just his companies, after accepting arguments that some entities functioned as his “alter egos.” That decision cut through the usual corporate layers that often shield individuals in patent disputes.
The case picked up an unexpected twist in late 2025 when Rothschild’s legal team filed a motion containing 13 fabricated legal citations, which the court later determined relied on generative AI without proper verification. The judge imposed sanctions, and the defense apologized before trial.
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