patent troll

plural patent trolls

1. derogatoryinformalintellectual propertyA company, person, etc., that owns and enforces patents in an aggressive and opportunistic manner, often with no intention of producing, marketing, or promoting the subjects of the patents.

   Recently, firms that specialize in acquiring patents purely for litigation—often derided as ‘patent trolls’ by the targets of their lawsuits—have emerged as significant players in some technology markets.

   2006, Timothy S. Simcoe, “Open Standards and Intellectual Property Rights”, in Henry Chesbrough, Wim Vanhaverbeke, Joel West, editors, Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part II (Institutions Governing Open Innovation), page 175

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   On one hand, the new law may intend to enhance the application of new technologies and discourage patent trolls. On the other hand, the new law attempts to further bring the Patent Law in line with the international treaties and laws in other areas (e.g., antimonopoly law).

   1990, William P. Streng, Allen D. Wilcox, editors, Doing Business in China: (People’s Republic of China), volume 2, New York, N.Y.: Matthew Bender, →ISBN, page 278

   So favorable was the Federal Circuit's treatment of patents, in fact, that reinventing, nonmanufacturing speculators who would acquire one or more patents with a view toward using their leverage to reap large damages awards, leading to the sobriquet, patent "trolls," began to emerge as plaintiffs who would often put entire industries in patent peril. Thus was born (or became more common) the "patentee" who neither invented nor practiced the subject matter of its invention, but rather, sought to profit by licensing its patent under the threat of litigation, injunctive relief and substantial damages in the propatent climate that the Federal Circuit's views had created.

   1992, Roger M. Milgrim, Milgrim on Trade Secrets, volume 2, Newark, N.J.: LexisNexis, →ISBN

   Most companies are reluctant to get the best return on their most valuable assets. [...] Being publicly branded a patent "troll" adds to the turmoil. Patent trolls are controversial not because of the destruction attributed to them, but because they strike at the heart of the complex relationship between innovation and commerce. The term has become synonymous with the unfair assertion of IP rights and extortion of damage payments.

   2006, Bruce [M.] Berman, “Roadblocks or Building Blocks?”, in Bruce Berman, editor, Making Innovation Pay: People Who Turn IP into Shareholder Value, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 3

   During the early 21st century, a number of patent and licensing enforcement companies (PLECs), more commonly referred to as "patent trolls," emerged. Their only business is to acquire patents and then sue infringers.

   2008, Lindsay Moore, Lesley Craig, “The Law in Flux”, in Intellectual Capital in Enterprise Success: Strategy Revisited, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, part II (The Changing Rules), page 54

   The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.

   2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, London: Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Mar 2019, page 55