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How about maintaining software patents (which have merits) but making it so the only way to acquire a patent is to acquire the company that owns it?

This would completely kill the patent troll business while adding value to startups that file innovative patents.

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"software patents (which have merits)". There are none.

The only thing that would do is add the insignificant cost of forming an LLC to the cost of filing a patent. Also patent profiteering is typically based around licensing, not ownership.

You're missing my point. I'm not talking about filing a patent but acquiring an existing one.

You should only be allowed to acquire an existing patent if you acquire the company that owns it.

You're missing the point. Given your rules, if you file a patent through a shell company spun up for the individual patent, then you can sell that company to the patent trolls just like you'd sell a patent these days. It would leave many existing patents that are not already held by patent trolls off limits to patent trolls, but it would not do anything for patents created after the rule goes into effect (because there is no sufficient reason not to create a shell corp and keep that flexibility, if you're already going through the expense and paperwork of filing a patent).

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