Bringing in millions through patents invariably requires university leadership to confront what a patent is: an authorization to sue for infringement. Patents confer the right to exclude others from using a given invention, without the patent holder's permission, for a twenty-year term. Permission, of course, costs money--something universities perpetually need. Universities seek patent rights in order to attract the private-sector investments necessary to bring inventions out of laboratories and classrooms and into the marketplace. While many university patents are licensed nonexclusively--that is to say, for nominal rates to more than one company within a given industry--anticipated "home runs" tend to be licensed exclusively, to only one company, so that substantial private-sector investments can be offset by the supranormal profits that come with being the only company to offer the next big thing. How research universities approach their potential involvement in patent-infringement lawsuits similarly reflects their fragile balance of mission and money through patents. For each university the path forward will vary, but all the paths promise to be perilous. While university patents unquestionably can and should be used for the public good, the uncomfortable fact remains that patents at their core represent private property rights that take occasional threats and assertive litigation action to maintain. Universities unwilling to make those threats, and to sue infringers when warranted, waste resources seeking patents in the first place. Administrators facing tight budgets may soon confront this very dilemma: either the university must stand by its patents for the sake of their revenue potential and industry relationships that further the university's research mission or it must stop engaging in the costly activity of patenting. For better or for worse, universities that are serious or strive to be serious about commercializing research are unlikely to disown their intellectual offspring. It is the nature of the business they find themselves in.