Claims Without Merit Are the Problem, Not Trolls

The term “patent troll” is a pejorative term for a business entity that holds intellectual property, doesn’t utilize it for producing goods or services, but sometimes file lawsuits against companies that do. Marla R. Butler, IP attorney with Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, makes the case that – so defined – patent trolls are not a problem, and what they do is in fact a legal and legitimate, and moreover an essential element of the intellectual property system. On the other hand, there are some practices that can poison the patent system, now commonly employed by patent trolls, and they need to be addressed. We need to understand some crucial distinctions, the author says.