'Spectators' build up an IP portfolio and then wait for a big firm to infringe upon it
New economy sources strenuously avoid using the words 'patent extortion'. The phrase is taboo for good reason. The Illinois-based patent purchasing firm TechSearch slapped a libel suit on the semiconductor giant Intel when a spokesman called TechSearch 'a patent extortionist'.
Even so, when tech analysts talk about 'patent trolling', they essentially mean the same thing: a devious scheme to make easy money. Trolling boils down to amassing an intellectual property portfolio, then sitting back and waiting for some tech titan to blunderingly infringe upon it.
The speculator then swoops with threats of a lawsuit and hopes that, to save hassle, the corporation in question will decide to settle out of court rather than fight. Patent trolling is all about finagling rather than working to get ahead. Critics say it stifles innovation and hurts the consumer by driving up prices.
It was law expert Peter Detkin who highlighted the phenomenon by coining the curious name. During his tenure as assistant general counsel at the semiconductor giant Intel, Mr Detkin found that most of his time was taken up battling patent infringement claims by businesses that could scarcely spell 'semiconductor'. In 1999 alone, the claims supposedly exceeded $15billion.
He placed a couple of troll dolls, like voodoo effigies, on his desk and branded the firms that expected Intel to cough up 'patent trolls'.
One wonders whether Mr Detkin tried to patent the catchy term, which so neatly fuses the image of a moving baited line with that of evil cave-dwelling Scandinavian goblins - in other words, a vile version of the garden gnome with a fishing rod.