Ian Mcdonald And Kerry Knoll, Both 48, Had A Good thing going with Glencairn Gold, founded in 1987. Four years later they spun off a piece of it, Wheaton River Minerals, which is now Canada's fifth-largest gold producer. But they really hit pay dirt╚Dor so they thought―five years ago with Patent Enforcement & Royalties Ltd., or Pearl. Dreamed up with John Cocomile, a Toronto attorney, Pearl offers services to small-time inventors who believe their patents have been violated by big bad corporations but can't afford to build a case. It finds lawyers to work on contingency and pays 90% of litigants' other costs, including travel, expert witnesses and local counsel―in exchange for a lawyer-size fee: 30% to 50% of what's left after the lawyer takes his fee, perhaps 33% of a settlement.
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