How “Patent Trolling” Taxes Innovation

Notice this is a guest article, it isn't by the "freakonimists", Levitt & Dubner. Levitt & Dubner had a chapter in their book which was glowing puff piece about Intellectual Ventures. IV is perhaps the biggest patent troll of all.

Don't waste your time. This is a pretty crappy article. It will be old hat for you if you've been following this area in any depth.

Misleading discussions: the proportion of patents that are overturned compared to the number that aren't, what makes a bad patent bad, who files for patents, what is a patent troll, who are the patent trolls.

Missing discussions: the distinction between software patents and non-software patents, the consequences of in re Bilski, the proportion of software patents vs non-software patents, the current misguided "reform" efforts in Congress, the nuclear war in the mobile industry, Google vs. Oracle.

Lets talk about how the patent cartels suppress small companies in order to dominate the entire computer and mobile hardware industry.

It would be an interesting (albeit expensive) experiment for some VC to start publicly and aggressively financing defence against patent troll attacks on their portfolio companies. If trolls are after settlements and the VC sends the message that they won't settle, trolls may leave their portfolio alone in the long run.

It would help if they characterized 'patent trolls' accurately. Their alleged behavior is after all the subject of the piece.