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A patent troll is a company who sues over at least one patent, but does not produce any products. As a result, the company cannot be threatened, because you ca
by DarkShikari 16y ago
A patent troll is a company who sues over at least one patent, but does not produce any products. As a result, the company cannot be threatened, because you cannot impact their "sales" in any way (e.g. by threatening with other patents) -- they have none. This is in contrast to the typical situation where two companies threaten each other with patents and then (usually) hammer out a cross-licensing deal.
This is an industry term, not an insult.
- Qz 16y agoPretty sure it started as an insult and became an industry term after the fact...
- joebadmo 16y agoI hate the patent system as much as the next guy, but given what the patent system is meant to do, is there a way to distinguish between patent trolls and legitimate R&D firms that invest in technology and license the resulting patents, but don't actually productize themselves?
- lmkg 16y agoEasy. 1) Do they perform original research themselves, or do they purchase patent rights? If they're not actually generating knowledge, then they're rent-seeking. 2) Do they generate income from licenses, or from lawsuits? Licensing IP is a voluntary transaction for both parties, so the people using the IP believe they're paying a fair cost for it. Lawsuits seek to extract maximum payoff through coercive means, usually because the free-market value of their IP would be vanishingly small.
- joebadmo 16y agoHm. Thanks! I'll give you 1, but I'm not sure about 2. I guess if there's a pattern of lawsuits over licensing, but isn't a lawsuit what you resort to if someone uses your patented process without licensing?
- nandemo 16y agoWhat if a company who does research wants to sell its patent rights? Assuming patents are legitimate, that should be possible. Just as composers who sell rights to their songs.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]