Companies in 2014 spent more than $12.2 billion on legal costs associated with nonpracticing entity (NPE) litigation, only slightly less than the $12.5 billion spent in 2013, according to RPX Corp.'s third annual “NPE Cost Report.”

NPE plaintiffs sued approximately 2,000 companies in a total of more than 3,600 lawsuits during 2014, the report said.

The release of the report comes at a time when Congress is renewing its focus on NPEs, commonly called patent trolls, that abuse and exploit the U.S. patent system. But RPX said the goal of its report is simply to provide data to IP attorneys, general counsel and top executives that can be used to quantify risk exposure to NPEs.