I absolutely agree that litigation is expensive.
I'd note as well that statutory damages with a range of $1,000 to $100,000 still would provide judges with discretion, ultimately, to make a determination on the appropriate level of damages. To the extent that there's a cost incurred on a rights holder or small business seeking damages, it’s still at the discretion of the court. It would just be a question of having it limited.
On the other side of it, it could create circumstances where damages could be awarded beyond what is reasonable. This is a hypothetical situation, but you could have a circumstance where one ball cap was the extent of the counterfeit goods. If somebody was taken to court for that offence, then the minimum damages available to the court would be $1,000, which would be beyond what is reasonable.
As well, it's really important that judges would have the full evidence. They would have a much better sense of what the full evidence was in specific circumstances. It would be very difficult for the state to establish statutory damages taking into account all of the different variables that a judge would have in a specific circumstances on specific cases.