The term “patent troll” conjures up all kinds of images and ideas, but what is a patent troll?  The answer is that there is really no universally accepted definition of what a patent troll is.  In the most common sense of the term it is usually reserved for those who acquire patents from inventors or companies, perhaps through bankruptcy, auction or otherwise, and then turn around and sue giants of industry for patent infringement.  In this situation patent trolls are typically extremely well funded, they are not engaging in any commerce, so they do not fear a patent infringement counter-claim because they are not infringing, or doing, anything.

Notwithstanding, patent trolls are starting to turn their focus in an ever increasing manner on small businesses.  Small businesses are typically easy targets because many do not have the funding, or desire, to engage in a litigation.  They see the offer of a patent license as too attractive to pass up despite the fact that they feel they are not infringing, or that the patent being asserted is likely (or almost certainly) full of invalid claims for which there is much prior art.  These bad actors prey on small businesses, banking on the fact that they will pay rather than fight.

Some have turned toward referring to patent trolls as the now popular term “non-practicing entities.”  This is a more gentile term, but don’t be fooled.  Many of the patent trolls would love to be called non-practicing entities because then they get to compare themselves with those who we ought to be celebrating; those who no one would consider vilifying.  Yes, the bad actors who are the prototypical patent trolls are non-practicing entities, but so are Universities, federal laboratories, Research and Development companies and even independent inventors.  In fact, Thomas Edison was in the business of innovating and hardly anyone would ever call his motives nefarious, at least those who are subscribers to the capitalist culture.

There are ways to combat patent trolls.  You don’t need to be a target.  In addition to the articles below I recommend those being sued or targeted by a patent troll read: What To Do If You Are Sued for Patent Infringement, Reexamination Would Stop Patent Trolls and Extortion Patent Style.

If you have been sued for patent infringement, or if you have received a threatening cease and desist letter, my firm and I can help.  To contact me initially please fill out my contact form and someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

Articles About Patent Trolls

• Google: We Don’t Sell to Patent Trolls May 2, 2013 TweetLate yesterday I was contacted via telephone by a representative of Google about my article titled Is Patent Litigation Really a Problem for Big Tech? I was told during that telephone conversation that I misunderstood what Suzanne Michel said during the symposium at American University. I was also told that Google does not sell patents ...
• Is Patent Litigation Really a Problem for Big Tech? May 1, 2013 TweetIf big tech companies are selling unwanted patents to patent trolls who then turn around and monetize them there are a lot of questions to ask. First, why are they selling to those who then turn around and sue them? There is an obvious solution to this problem, if it is indeed a real problem ...
• Fixing the Patent System to Improve Innovation April 17, 2013 TweetSettling nuisance value perpetuates the cycle, as the automobile industry discovered in the 1980s and early 1990s. Show a willingness to pay extortion-like demands and you will see more lawsuits filed. It is an endless cycle, at least until it gets broken. The solution is an easy one — fight at least occasionally, or at ...
• Silicon Valley Seeks Answers for Patent Litigation Abuse April 10, 2013 TweetDespite the fact that the anti-patent forces ignore history and make claims that are wholly unsupported about the scope and overall problem of patent litigation and patent thickets (which by the way always result in an explosion of technology), there is a troubling problem with really bad actors who seek to enforce specious patent claims ...
• House Subcommittee Pursues Answers to Litigation Abuses by Patent Assertion Entities March 28, 2013 TweetThe House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet on March 14, 2013, heard from six witnesses that the business of “patent assertion entities” (PAEs) is inflicting severe harm on a broad range of technology users. The witnesses at the hearing agreed that, when confronted PAE demand letters on frivolous claims, settlements ...
• Mark Cuban is an Idiot, Patents Do NOT Impede Innovation March 7, 2013 TweetThose that do the complaining erroneously state that they speak on behalf of the entire industry. But I know they don’t speak for IBM, or Qualcomm or Tessera or the many other innovative companies that exist in the high-tech sector. They certainly don’t speak for the pharmaceutical industry that absolutely needs strong patents to survive, ...
• Chief Judge Rader Speaks Out About Patent Litigation Abuse February 28, 2013 TweetChief Judge Rader: “The patent system has a narrow focus. It is not a consumer affairs program. It is not a manufacturers guarantee compliance program. It’s not a competition program. It has one objective, summarized well by the Constitution: promote the progress of science and the useful arts. It’s there to create more investment ...
• Privateering: Patent Holding Companies Unleash Patent Portfolios February 11, 2013 TweetThere is a tremendous amount of unrealized (“un-monetized”) value in the patent portfolios of many large companies. Yet, for one reason or another, such companies have chosen over the years not enforce their patents in court or through a licensing campaign. In recent times, however, a few of these companies have, one-by-one, started ...
• Exclusive Interview: Paul Ryan, CEO of Acacia Research Part II January 22, 2013 TweetWhat you think of Ryan and Acacia is almost entirely dependent upon the side of the aisle on which you sit; namely whether you are an innovator or a practicing entity. Even more specifically, those who are innovators but don’t have a voice loud enough to be heard by practicing entities are likely to believe ...
• Exclusive Interview: Paul Ryan, CEO of Acacia Research January 20, 2013 TweetPaul Ryan is a more common name than you might think. In the world of politics when one speaks of “Paul Ryan” they are talking about the Republican Congressman from Wisconsin who was Mitt Romney’s running-mate and would-have-been Vice President. But in the intellectual property world, particularly the patent litigation world, the name “Paul Ryan” ...
• CAFC Favors Non-Practicing Entities on “Domestic Injury” January 16, 2013 TweetRecently the Federal Circuit, sitting en banc, denied Nokia’s petition for rehearing. The Federal Circuit decision is nevertheless interesting for its treatment of Section 337’s “domestic industry” requirement as it is applied to NPEs. Under 19 U.S.C. §1337(a)(2), relief at the Commission is predicated on the existence or establishment of an industry in the ...
• Troll Turning Point? Federal Circuit Breathes Life into Rule 11 December 9, 2012 TweetThis is very good news for defendants and for the patent system. If Rule 11 is actually enforced against those who sue without a reasonable basis the bad actors will be wiped out. It will also work to identify those who are REALLY the patent trolls compared with those who are patent owner who ...
• The Enforcement of Bad Patents is the Problem December 3, 2012 TweetRight now the best business to be in at the moment is the patent enforcement business, at least if you are concerning yourself with low-risk monetization with high reward. Between the legacy issue of bad patents, patent auctions and the many who purchase patents, what has started to happen is that the patent system rewards ...
• FTC, DOJ to Hold Workshop on Patent Assertion Entity Activities November 19, 2012 TweetThis workshop will examine the economic and legal implications of patent assertion entity (PAE) activity, as distinct from prototypical “non-practicing entity” (NPE) activity, such as developing and transferring technology. By contrast, PAE activities often include purchasing patents from existing owners and seeking to maximize revenues by licensing the intellectual property to (or litigating against) ...
• The America Invents Act 500: Effects of Patent Monetization Entities on US Litigation October 21, 2012 TweetAny discussion of flaws in the United States patent system inevitably turns to the system’s modern villain: non-practicing entities. They are known more colorfully as patent trolls, although the business model of non-practicing entities has appeared in copyright markets as well as well as in patent markets. In the America Invents Act, Congress directed the ...
• There is No Patent Bubble, Nor NPE Mana October 10, 2012 TweetTo be sure, all of the concerns over the patent bubble are legitimate, and as always, rational debate is beneficial to the healthy development of patent market. The lack of disclosure leads to the scarcity of data, and what comes with the scarcity are the incompleteness and obscurity, all of which lead to misinterpretation of ...
• Article One Partners Searching for Prior Art for STEC IP Patents September 9, 2012 TweetOn May 22, 2012, STEC IP brought separate patent infringement lawsuits against Apple, Amazon and Oracle. Little information about STEC IP seems available. In the complaints filed they explain only that they are a Delaware limited liability company having a principle place of business in Greensboro, North Carolina. Under Delaware law Members of ...
• Here they go again – this time with the Patent SHIELD Act August 26, 2012 TweetIndeed, the bill’s co-sponsor acknowledges and states “his bill combats the problem of patent trolls by moving to a ‘loser pays’ system for software and hardware patent litigation.” However, the bill’s sponsors fail to explain what makes the frequency, risk, or social harm of “egregious” patent lawsuits any different than those of other “egregious” ...
• Sony Announces Partnership with Article One to Fight NPEs August 7, 2012 TweetArticle One Partners, or AOP for short, is the world’s largest patent research community. Yesterday the company announced a partnership with Sony Corporation. AOP is supporting Sony’s defense against the rising trend in patent disputes with non-practicing entities (NPEs). “We have chosen to expand our prior art research capabilities with Article One Partners and their ...
• New Patent Reform Takes Swing at Patent Trolls August 3, 2012 TweetYesterday Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) introduced the Saving High-tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes Act, or SHIELD Act for short. If ever passed into law the SHIELD Act would ostensibly adopt a variation on the English Rule, where the losing patent owner pays the legal fees of the victorious patent ...
• NPE Data Does Not Support the Patent Infringer Lobby July 18, 2012 TweetAnyone who is even casually interested in patents and innovation has to know that over the past few years there have been massive patent battles surrounding the major innovators, copy-cats and manufacturers involved in the smart phone industry. According to the ITC, “Smartphone companies involved in Section 337 investigations during the first half of ...
• Infringer Lobby Seeks to Strip ITC of Patent Powers July 17, 2012 TweetPerhaps the infringer lobby needs a refresher course on the rights granted to a patent owner. 35 U.S.C. § 271(a) says: “whoever without authority makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention, within the United States, or imports into the United States any patented invention during the term of the patent therefor, ...
• NPE Tessera to Manufacture Next Generation Miniature Cameras June 29, 2012 TweetA wholly owned subsidiary of Tessera Technologies has acquired a Tier One qualified camera module manufacturing business. While it likely wasn’t the only motivation, it would be naive, however, not to recognize the obvious reality that while this will significantly raise their bottom line it will also provide litigation advantages. Nevertheless, the ...
• Mobile App Developers Gain Ally to Fight Patent Infringement June 5, 2012 TweetAs a result of this announcement today, AOP will help Appsterdam accomplish the organizations mandate of supporting ongoing innovation and business success in the mobile app development community through research projects sent to its global, diverse and highly educated community. The Appsterdam Foundation attorneys and developers will work with AOP to conduct patent research, ...
• America’s First Patent Thicket: Sewing Machine War of the 1850s May 3, 2012 TweetThe story of the invention and development of the sewing machine challenges these two assumptions insofar as it is a story of a patent thicket in an extremely old technology, but, more important, it is a story of the successful resolution of this thicket through a private-ordering mechanism. The Sewing Machine War was not brought ...
• Setting the Record Straight: Patent Trolls vs. Progress May 1, 2012 TweetMr. Kessler believes that Mr. Madison did not understand what he was doing or, at best, did not foresee the expense that patent litigation would involve in the 21st century. In fact, the founding fathers knew exactly what they were doing when writing the intellectual property clause into the U.S. Constitution. They were protecting the ...
• Patent Litigation Study Discusses Dealing with NPEs April 17, 2012 TweetAttendees agreed that it’s critical for companies to gain greater leverage to deter nuisance lawsuits and manage costs by reducing the cost of litigation defense. According to those surveyed this is accomplished, at least in part, through the use of joint defense groups (JDGs), where parties engage in shared co-counsel to reduce defense costs. ...
• An Exclusive Interview with Ray Niro, Part 2 March 20, 2012 TweetRay Niro is a nationally recognized trial attorney specializing in the enforcement of patent, trade secret and related intellectual property rights. The name Niro, however, is not like any other in the patent industry. It was as a consequence of a lawsuit one of his clients brought against Intel in 2001 that the term “patent ...
• An Exclusive Interview with Ray Niro, Mr. Patent Litigation March 18, 2012 TweetRaymond P. Niro is patent litigator with tremendous experience and a reputation that is larger than life. To some he is a champion of independent inventors and small business community, frequent clients of his. To others he is nearly the definition of evil. It was as a consequence of a lawsuit one ...
• Patent Litigation Investors Follow the Money to the ITC March 4, 2012 TweetThe avalanche of patent assertion entities (PAE) cases, in the ITC and District Court, exists because the PTO issues hundreds, if not thousands of patents that can be asserted against every minute feature and functionality of tech products and services. The overwhelming majority issued to so-called inventors who played no part in developing these ...
• Follow the Money – Will the ITC Lose its Patent Jurisdiction? February 27, 2012 TweetSuch is the case with the newest lobby in Washington, the self-described “ITC Working Group.” You won’t learn anything about this organization by searching Google — odd, considering that Google is a member — but according to industry sources, its aim is twofold: First, it wants to block the International Trade Commission (ITC) from hearing ...
• Are Patent Wars Good for America? February 20, 2012 TweetIn short, today’s smartphone patent wars are simply “back to the future” when it comes to how disruptive new industries are developed. Every major technological and industrial breakthrough in U.S. history — from the Industrial Revolution to the birth of the automobile and aircraft industries on up to today’s Internet and mobile communications revolutions — ...
• Patent Mass Aggregators: The Giants Among Us February 6, 2012 TweetThe types of returns promised to investors and the types of benefits offered to participants are also quite different from garden-variety non-practicing entities, as are some of the tactics used in organizing the entities and in asserting the patents. Finally, the scale itself is simply mind-boggling. Mass aggregators operate on a scale and at a ...
• Acacia Research by the Numbers: Inside the Belly of the Beast January 3, 2012 TweetAcacia has long been considered by many to be the mother of all patent trolls. But are they really a patent troll? The term “patent troll” is one that is nearly impossible to define given the reality that one man’s patent troll is another man’s innovator who just chooses to license. Increasingly, ...
• Android Woes: IV Sues Motorola Mobility for Patent Infringement October 7, 2011 TweetSo here we are, many years later and IV’s philosophy seems to have changed. No longer is litigation a poor way to monetize patents, but rather IV sees itself as having a responsibility to litigate. The self-righteousness of IV’s claims is why they engender such distrust, even bordering on hatred. For so ...
• Indicia of Extortion – Federal Circuit Slams Patent Troll August 4, 2011 TweetIt was also determined that the underlying patent litigation was brought for no other reason than to extract nuisance payments despite the fact that there was no infringement. Specifically, the district court determined that Eon-Net filed the lawsuit against Flagstar had “indicia of extortion” because it was part of Eon-Net’s history of filing nearly identical ...
• The Problem with Patent Trolls July 28, 2011 TweetTo me a patent troll is not just someone who has acquired a patent for purpose of licensing or bringing a lawsuit, but rather one who is engaging in some kind of unfair business practice. The telltale sign of a patent troll is one who is abusing the patent right in order to shake ...
• Angry Birds Developer Sued by Patent Troll July 23, 2011 TweetOn Thursday, July 21, 2011, attorneys for Lodsys LLC, who is rapidly becoming a reviled patent troll, filed an amended complaint in the United States Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. As a result of this amended complaint some big names in the gaming world have been brought into the ongoing patent ...
• Inadequate Investigation Prior to Patent Infringement Lawsuit Merits Attorneys’ Fees and Costs July 19, 2011 TweetPrior to filing the lawsuit the Plaintiff sought the opinion of patent counsel to evaluate the prospect of a patent infringement suit against the Defendants, and received such an opinion in the form of a letter from opinion counsel. A claims chart was attached to the opinion letter, which identified the limitations of the claims, ...
• Wanted: Prior Art to Invalidate Lodsys Patents July 8, 2011 TweetArticle One Partners is at it again, this time with four patents in the cross-hairs owned by the company suing Apple App Developers for patent infringement — Lodsys. Article One Partners has made a name for itself as the premiere crowd sourcing, prior art locating company in the world. Now they have three different ...
• Extortion Patent Style: Small Business in the Troll Crosshairs May 24, 2011 TweetBetween 1995 and 2009 the overall median patent litigation damage award was $5.2 million, but between 2002-2009 there was a huge discrepancy between the average damage award for practicing entities versus non-practicing entities. The median award for non-practicing entities was $12.9 million, while the median award for practicing entities lagged far behind at $3.9 ...
• Apple to Patent Troll: Back Off Apple App Developers May 23, 2011 TweetEarlier today Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) poked a finger straight in the chest of alleged patent troll Lodsys, LLC, saying in no unmistakable terms — back off Apple App developers! For several weeks Lodsys has been sending threatening letters to Apple App developers and Apple has had enough and isn’t going to take it ...
• Patent Litigation: Davids Seeking Many Millions from Goliaths May 18, 2011 TweetOverall there will be few large paydays for small and mid-size companies against the Fortune 1000, and fewer still for those who do not engage an appropriate strategy and simply rush head first into litigation or licensing negotiations. Notwithstanding, cultivating or acquiring a patent portfolio will allow small and mid-size companies to hold assets that ...
• Understanding NPEs: Patent Troll Myths Debunked April 26, 2011 TweetI was surprised about how wrong my own intuition was, which is why I focus on the myths about patent trolls. Just about everything we thought we knew – good or bad – does not appear to be true. The article may not change too many minds about patent trolls. Those who believe NPEs ...
• Intellectual Ventures: Independence Day Take II December 20, 2010 TweetJust like in the story-line of Independence Day, where the alien death ships slowly but surely positioned themselves over each major city, with the eventual outcome well understood, so too is Intellectual Ventures (I.V.) slowly positioning itself as the patent overlord over many major industry segments. Just like in the movie, the eventual outcome is ...
• Patent Trolls: Innovation Vampires Suck Life Out of Economy December 14, 2010 TweetWhat we need to focus on are those that are taking from the patent system without returning anything to the patent system. Rather than call these groups patent trolls, I would much rather call them what they really are — innovation vampires. These innovation vampires grab hold of as many patents as they sink their ...
• Complaint Dismissed: Paul Allen’s Patent Trolling Complaint Against Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Others Hits Snag December 13, 2010 TweetIf the remainder of her decision is any evidence as to what she was thinking, it seems pretty clear to me that if she were forced to have addressed that issue she would have said that as a result of Twombly and Iqbal the model patent infringement complaint no longer satisfies the requirements of Federal ...
• Article One Partners Launches Public Review of NTP Patents December 10, 2010 TweetArticle One Partners announced yesterday that patents held by NTP Incorporated are the focus of three new requests for research, which Article One Partners refers to as Patent Studies. NTP was made famous for its litigation against BlackBerry maker Research-in-Motion (RIM) that resulted in a settlement north of $600 million. New litigation by NTP has ...
• Intellectual Ventures Becomes Patent Troll Public Enemy #1 December 9, 2010 TweetIntellectual Ventures unleashed three separate patent infringement litigations in the U.S. District Court of Delaware against companies in the software security; dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and Flash memory; and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) industries. While I do not begrudge any patent owner their day in court to seek redress for infringement, we really should ...
• Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Sues Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Others for Patent Infringement August 29, 2010 TweetOn Friday, August 27, 2010, Interval Research Corporation brought a patent infringement lawsuit against a who’s who of tech companies in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle, specifically suing AOL, Inc., Apple, Inc., eBay, Inc., Facebook, Inc., Google Inc., Netflix, Inc., Office Depot, Inc., OfficeMax Inc., Staples, Inc., ...