Blunderov
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"We think in generalities, we live in details"
  
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RE: virus: Wordspy - patent troll
« on: 2003-08-16 02:34:26 » |
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wordspy@logophilia.com
a wonderful resource to which one can subscribe for free.
Today's offering:
<q>
patent troll
(PAT.unt trohl) n. A company that purchases a patent, often from a
bankrupt firm, and then sues another company by claiming that one of its
products infringes on the purchased patent.. -adj.
-patent trolling pp.
Example Citation:
These patent system bottom feeders have now become so common that Intel
has coined a term to describe them: "patent trolls ." Several problems
contribute to making this "patent troll" business model a simple and
effective source of illegitimate profit irrespective of the quality of
the patent. For example, if the troll can claim that the patent covers
$5 billion in annual revenue, that troll will ask for a royalty fee of a
few percentage points of revenue; e.g., $150 million per year. While
that may seem to be an absurd amount to pay to someone who bought a
patent out of bankruptcy for less than one hundred thousand dollars, the
troll will threaten the legitimate business with a permanent injunction
at the end of the patent case, threatening the halt of the sale of a
critical product or closing down a production facility. Even if the
chance of the troll winning is low, the troll's costs are modest,
normally a few million dollars at most. In contrast, the legitimate
business the troll targeted faces potential financial ruin if it can no
longer sell a key product. Intel recently faced such a troll who wanted
$8 billion and a permanent injunction after purchasing the patent for
$50,000.
-David M. Simon, "Patent processing improvements," Federal Document
Clearing House Congressional Testimony, July 24, 2003
Backgrounder:
The use of the word "troll" in this phrase is a sly linguistic trick. On
the one hand, it contains the sense of the fishing activity in which a
baited line is dragged through water, usually from the back of a slow
moving boat. On the other hand, it also refers to a being from the old
Scandinavian legends that's usually depicted as a dwarf (although
sometimes as a giant) that lives in a cave or under a bridge. (Both
senses date from the 17th century.)
So a "patent troll" is, officially, someone who fishes around for unused
patents, but is also, unofficially, a low, inhuman creature who only
uses those patents for litigious purposes.
Example Citation #2:
Panelists cited the growing problem of "patent trolling," where an
individual asserts patent rights over a firm for an invention that the
individual is not actively using.
-Maureen Sirhal, "Corporate Patent Experts Take A Stand For The System,"
National Journal's Technology Daily, March 20, 2002
Earliest Citation:
The assistant general counsel at semiconductor titan Intel Corp., Detkin
spends much of his time these days fighting off claims of patent
infringement by companies that have never made a semiconductor device.
In 1999 alone, the claims topped $15 billion, Detkin said, and he hurls
the epithet "patent trolls" at the companies that want Intel to pay up.
He even keeps a couple of troll dolls on his desk in the gray warren of
buildings at Intel's Santa Clara headquarters just as a reminder of his
company's legal enemies. "We were sued for libel for the use of the term
'patent extortionists' so I came up with 'patent trolls,'" Detkin said.
"A patent troll is somebody who tries to make a lot of money off a
patent that they are not practicing and have no intention of practicing
and in most cases never practiced."
-Brenda Sandburg, "Inventor's lawyer makes a pile from patents," The
Recorder, July 30, 2001
Also:
Although Wang believes that Intel has occasionally been too quick to sue
rather than settle, he maintains that the company is defending a solid
patent position. Lee contrasts Intel with Stac Electronics, which last
June launched a splashy patent suit against IIT's lossless
data-compression processor before anyone had even seen a chip. The suit
collapsed, but not before helping to sour the market for the IIT device.
Wang says that he worries more about these fanciful suits from out of
left field than about suits by companies like Intel. As for the
Japanese, now depicted as the new patent trolls, Wang believes that for
political and cultural reasons they are taking a merely defensive
stance.
-"When Intel Doesn't Sue," Forbes, March 29, 1993
</q>
Best Regards
Blunderov
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