What's the biggest risk when trying to negotiate a licence?
Not negotiating who's going to be responsible to solve problems when they inevitably show up.
How much is litigation going to cost me?
Litigation costs depend very much on what issues you bring to court. Costs for copyright lawsuits will likely be very different from costs for patent lawsuits.
There are two currencies you have to care about – money and time. Patent litigation can take 2–3 years and cost as much as 3–5 million dollars if the case goes all the way to trial. (Most cases settle beforehand, though.) Copyright litigation is comparatively “cheap” at only...
Another important cost is the time and attention your engineers and executives will have to allocate to the litigation (in addition to time and attention billed and charged for by lawyers). This takes valuable people away from real work on the business, all while competitors are trying to outshine you in the market.
And litigation is still very risky. You can have a stellar case and still lose, or only win after a protracted trial and appeal. We generally suggest that litigation should only be engaged in very cautiously, at least for small companies.