Patent Trolling Convincingly Defended
Below are excerpts from an excellent rant from IP Litigation Law Blog that puts the "patent terrorism" issue in perhaps a more proper perspective:
“Yet another article I came across -- this time in The Motley Fool -- that intentionally or unintentionally spreads lies, untruths and disinformation about the patent system...
Last I checked, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution speaks of "promot[ing] the progress of science and useful arts," not "regulating and encouraging fair business." And it speaks of doing so "by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries," not, as the author of this article claims, by ‘businesses us[ing] patents and copyrights to protect their intellectual ideas as a defensive moat.’…
The author goes on to say, "Often, these organizations [i.e, patent terrorists] purchased the patents or swallowed companies that were going under to acquire the ideas, which is called patent trolling." Let me get this straight -- going out into the open market and "acquiring the [patented] ideas" of a failing business is somehow wrong?...
Big business is and always has been the primary beneficiary of the patent system. The cries we hear now are not those of innocents "victimized" by an unfair system. Rather, they are the cries of those who don't like finding out they're expected to follow the laws and live under the same system they have mostly created themselves. Some call that unfair. Others call that justice.”
