The inefficiency of joint-defense groups might be comical if it weren’t so costly: 10 attorneys taking two meetings to split up a $100,000 invoice. Ballooning bills so irrationally high they scare some into settling.

“There are all these horror stories, but no one was really stepping up and trying to do something different,” says Douglas Luftman, chief IP counsel at NetApp Inc. “We’ve got to stop the insanity.”