Cost of defending yourself against patent litigation

Effects

(This article is for documenting what the costs are, but I'd like to leave this note first.)

In software, where practitioners are often individuals and SMEs, the cost of defending oneself is impossible to pay. The courts form a necessary form of checks and balances in the patent system, and if practitioners can't make use of the courts, the patents system doesn't work for those people. There is thus no justice for software developers when they have to work within the patent system.