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US Patent Trolling Costs $29 Billion a Year

Posted by Soulskill on from the gotta-give-those-courtrooms-something-to-do dept.

New submitter Bismillah writes "This piece of research from Boston University seems to put an end to claims that patent trolling is 'socially valuable,' and instead is a social loss. 'We estimate that firms accrued $29 billion of direct costs in 2011. Moreover, although large firms accrued over half of direct costs, most of the defendants were small or medium-sized firms, indicating that [non-practicing entities] are not just a problem for large firms.' The total cost to society could be around $80 billion, according to the researchers. What's more, the costs have gone up fourfold since 2005."

3 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. No, really? by qbast · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's a truly groundbreaking discovery. I mean, who could possibly expect that patent trolling may be bad practice?

  2. That's a lot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The patent trolling industry is worth £29 billion a year??? We must protect this vital industry - just think of the loss to the economy if anything happened to it.

  3. Re:Now he gets to be the bully by netwarerip · · Score: 5, Funny

    Former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold, who now heads up the controversial Intellectual Ventures patent rights company, told the All Things Digital conference two weeks ago that "I was never a popular kid in class".

    "I'm not going to be popular in this class."

    Maybe if he spent $250 and bought a freakin vowel he'd have a better shot.