Patents are, like it or not, one of the weapons of war, if you will, in business. Have been for a long, long time. And, while I too hate the "we invented the button and we have a patent" crowd I also recognize that they exist for a reason.
Denying someone employment because the company they work for seeks to enforce their patents --legitimate or not-- is nothing less than being a dick.
If you want to do something about frivolous patents get involved politically, seek to understand the issues and push to make sensible changes. So, how about it Mr. David Sacks instead of being a total dick by seeking to cause damage to Yahoo employees, would you use your money and influence to help change patent laws?
I have yet to see any of the loud-mouths spouting off about patents offer to do something like put together a fund to be used in pursuing changes to the laws. An, of course, none of them will write a check for a few million to fund it. If I was in a position to get something like this started I would. Maybe someone can reach vocal anti-patent guys like Mark Cuban and ask him to throw the first ten million into the pot to get this going?
With the money available in the top layer of tech companies it should be possible to put together a fund with billions of dollars. This fund could either be available to fight patent trolls or act as a PAC (or both).
Imagine, if you will, what would go through patent troll's minds if they tried to enforce bullshit patents and this group existed.
Let's call it the AFSPL (Americans For Sensible Patent Laws). Furthermore, imagine that this group had massive amounts of money and a whole floor full of lawyers and engineers to throw at the problem. The ACLU of the patent world, if you will.
If someone comes after you with a bullshit patent you could bring it up with the AFSPL for review. And, if they see it your way they defend you. Trolls would disappear almost instantly. Bullshit patents would be invalidated. The skies would turn blue and the birds would sing.
Maybe they could even mount a massive lawsuit against the patent office itself.
Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe that there's a place for valid an solid patents, even software patents. Having said that, I've read through so many patents that have caused me to yell and scream at the top of my lungs "this is bullshit!" that it is easy to loose hope.
Nah, going after Yahoo employees is crap. Get a grip on reality and put your time, effort and passion behind a real solution.