The Patent Misuse of Patent Trolls

Patent troll is a non-practicing entity in the domain of inventions, which obtains patent ownership without any intention of using it. Patent trolls buy their favored invention and waits for its infringement from other companies. After infringement and commercializing of the patent, in order to transfer the license and its royalty, the patent trolls threat companies with litigation. These entities initially were formed and have their central core in the United States due to the traits of the American system of inventions. Although some lawyers believe that trolls are useful by increasing inventor's motivation and providing capital for them, they have also some negative effects. These drawbacks force the legislators and judicial systems to pass new legislations and introduce new ways of redress in the related disputes in order to decreasing or limiting the patent trolls’ activities.In this paper, the concept of patent trolls is defined and explained, and its positive and negative effects are illustrated.