The issue with patent trolls isn't how they use patents - it's the patents that they use. There's nothing wrong with a researcher suing a factory over a patent

The issue with patent trolls isn't how they use patents - it's the patents that they use. There's nothing wrong with a researcher suing a factory over a patent the researcher holds that the factory is using without license. There's also nothing wrong with the researcher selling the patent to a lawyer, so as to avoid dealing with the legal system, and that lawyer then suing the factory. This works if the patent was issued for a meaningful advance. In fact, the researcher may not have been interested in doing the research (or at least in revealing his methodology) without patent protection. If the methodology were not revealed, other people would need to spend the time to develop their own process, when it would be easier for them to pay the researcher and then use his work. The issue with software patents is that the methodologies covered are trivial, and the time needed to develop your own method is trivial as well. Because the patents are granted for obvious solutions, many people end up violating the patent without ever having seen it; this is why patents are not supposed to be granted for obvious developments.