According to some a patent troll is a firm who licenses patents they do not themselves commercialize. Yet many of the large firms who are most critical of the practice do it themselves. Out licensing is now an important profit center of most every firm. Often, as a result they end up licensing out patents covering technologies they themselves do not use as they are not consistent with their corporate plan. Rather hypocritical isnt it?

The sad truth is that entities some call “trolls” are often small companies or independent inventors who cant get the money to commercialize their inventions and end up on the curb watching others benefit from their creations. It’s enough to drive one mad. It’s certainly enough to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

Inventors generally pitch their inventions to anyone who is willing to listen. Patent pirates are often willing to listen, then after extracting as much information as possible they tell the inventor they are not interested. A year or later they introduce a product. They then stonewall the inventor hoping they will simply give up. Far too often this works. In any event they usually have years of notice before they are sued and they most certainly are innocents being victimized by evil trolls.

Patent pirates pillage an inventor’s patent properties and then abuse the process of law to rape the inventor. Believe me when I say there is nothing romantic or humorous about the way these lying, cheating and unethical companies. These companies commit larceny on the grandest of scales to the tune of billions of dollars every year. They even have their own trade association, the Coalition for Patent Fairness, otherwise known as the Piracy Coalition. Piracy Coalition members will lie to, cheat, and steal, leaving no stone unturned to cover their disreputable conduct including conducting massive public relations campaigns painting inventors as “tolls”.

It is virtually certain that any inventor who produces a valuable invention will get first hand experience of transnational corporations idea of “Patent Fairness”.

Inventors who need a patent enforcement entity are welcome to contact the Professional Inventors Alliance. Just as with other service providers there are big differences in how good a deal the inventor will get between different enforcement entities.

In my opinion Intellectual Ventures would be the buyer of last resort. They are well known for downright stingy offers.

There are many tradeoffs in picking a suitable enforcement entity. And once an inventor determines who might be best for them they need to convince the enforcement entity that they and their invention is worth the enforcement entity’s time and money.

It is very important that inventors have a good contract attorney with intellectual property experience review all contracts before signing.

Ronald J. Riley,

Speaking only on my own behalf.
Affiliations:
President – http://www.PIAUSA.org – RJR at PIAUSA.org
Executive Director – http://www.InventorEd.org – RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow – http://www.patentPolicy.org
President – Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 – 9 am to 9 pm EST