patent trolling
1
8.9
- noun
- /ˈpætənt ˈtroʊlɪŋ/
- Jargon
:
patente de troll
- Patent trolling can seriously harm small businesses by forcing them to pay for licenses they cannot afford.
Up next, Intel has been locked in a bitter patent war with VLSI, which appears to be sort of a patent trolling shell.
- Up next, Intel has been locked in a bitter patent war with VLSI, which appears to be sort of a patent trolling shell.
Examples
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In particular, this means eliminating patents in the software industry, the source of much of the patent litigation and patent trolling.
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This looks like a case of blatant patent trolling over a blatantly obvious and ridiculously generic "prior art" patent.
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Over time, we hope that the Patent Stack Exchange will mitigate the problems caused by rampant patent trolling.
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Up next, Intel has been locked in a bitter patent war with VLSI, which appears to be sort of a patent trolling shell.
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Monopoly, lobbying money, IP court battle, patent trolling, strategic litigation, government funding, tax breaks for the big guys, military contracts, etc.
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Microsoft is utterly unprepared for the loss of its rent-seeking ability; you can already see the patent trolling starting to ramp up hard.
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For the uninitiated, patent trolling refers to the practice of owning a patent and suing one or more alleged infringers over it with the sole purpose of abusive personal or monetary gain.
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Many startups fear patent trolling as it can drain their resources and distract them from innovation.
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Some companies engage in patent trolling to extract settlements from larger firms without ever producing the patented technology.
How Litigious
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'patent' is literal but 'trolling' is typically known as deliberately provocative or abusive behavior (usually online). The phrase is a metaphorical extension meaning abusive use of patents to extract fees; learners who know both words might infer a negative/abusive action involving patents but not the specific legal practice, so it is partially but not fully predictable.
Etymology
Patent trolling comes from the image of a troll under a bridge who asks for money from people passing by; here patent is the legal right and trolling suggests that kind of demanding behavior. So, patent trolling means getting or using patents mainly to 'demand fees' or settlements, often 'without planning to make the product'.