Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. A patent is a tool for doing 1% of the work and then waiting for someone else to do the other 99% so you can sue.<p>I'm being a bit extreme there... I think there should be something like a patent. But, it should be very hard to get. Maybe only 1% of current patents should have been allowed. It might be lower than that.<p>A patent should only be allowed on something fundamental, conceptual, highly novel, and unprecedented, and there should be a significant burden of proof on the patenter to prove all that.
> Spangenberg argues that companies such as Microsoft and Ford know patent negotiation is one of the costs of doing business.<p>I really, really hate this argument. "This negative thing is accepted as inevitable, so why is it bad that I am proactively part of that negative thing?". I don't know how to explain why, but I do know it screams complete and total lack of ethics, only justification.<p>I'm just waiting for another patent troll to troll one of his legitimate businesses.
When it comes down to it, patent trolls are only a symptom of the real problem - the fact that far too many obvious patents are granted. If the only patents granted were ones that companies would be unlikely to come up with of their own accord when they faced a given problem, patent trolls would be substantially less common, and more justifiable.
This is an entertaining and timeless story. "Trolling" is, alas, inevitable due to the transferable nature of patent rights. (Troll-like cases are perhaps 1/20 of patent infringements filed.) But, the victims of trolling are not entirely without blame -- small inventors and start ups are frequently told to "scram" by large companies when they are informed of their potential infringement. Without a bankroll, contingency litigation is the only option for the small guy.
They call it patent trolling; I call it poetic justice.<p>The companies that are extorted by patent trolls are the same group that agitated for today's over-broad patent system in the hope that they could wall out smaller competitors with thickets of mutually cross-licensed defensive patents. They created the conditions for parasites to thrive - now they have to live with the consequences.<p>...or they could support patent reform.
I would draw a distinction between patent trolls who target multi-million dollar companies, and patent trolls who target small independent entrepreneurs who are crushed by the litigation.