Another article appeared discussing patent trolls. The article is called, “Looking to fend off patent trolls, IBM, Cisco support startup RPX” by John Cook. It appears I have a crusade here to properly define the issue of patent trolls for the patent community. My comment is below.
“Look, you are throwing around the term “patent troll” too loosely. A patent troll is one who acquires a patent for the sole purpose of enforcing it against someone else in litigation.
Everybody admits that the issues are 1) frivolous patents are awarded which duplicate subject matter in the prior art, 2) corporations infringe patents and bully inventors who deserve to be compensated for their innovations, 3) big patent-holding conglomerates are SCARY because they hold too much political and commercial power (according to some).
While the concept of a troll, e.g. company who buys patents to enforce them, seems to make them appear to be evil, remember that there would be no trolls if corporations were fair in their licensing practice and if they took licenses where licenses were appropriate. Instead, they play games and initiate stalling tactics to force the inventor into bankruptcy or to scare them into not pursuing them due to lack of funds. THIS is the problem. Get rid of this problem, and these helpless inventors will not sell their patents for pennies on the dollar.”