What's really needed, in my opinion, is a search engine to track shell companies. The lawyer interviewed is shooting from the hip when he says it is "a shell game".<p>Without the use of shell corporations the patent trolling game becomes much more difficult. In programmer lingo, it makes it "non-trivial". Using a system of shell corporations and hiding behind them makes patent trolling much more feasible as a pure play and makes it possible to do at scale, as Intellectual Ventures does.<p>If we pick up the shell and reveal the cretins hiding underneath, it would have a real effect on patent trolling. I can say this with 100% certainty.<p>Maybe even a more profound effect than making prior art easier to locate.