Patent Trolls: The notable ones

Oi!

Here I will go into some of the notable trolls of the industry and see how many patents they own and which companies they have under their belt licensing their patents for a charge. The first is Acacia Technologies which has 1,316 patents and dishes them out to the likes of Exxon, Microsoft, and Sony among other firms. Acacia believes that they are not stifling innovation but rather if someone owns the patent they should be paid. It is a valid argument but after a certain point, collecting patents seems a bit unlike the developer who made them demanding recourse. However, Acacia is good in that it splits the licencing revenue 50/50 with the patent owners and developers. Next we have Rambus, an infamous patent troll who was recently cited for destroying evidence in one of their trials. For the past decade, Rambus has made it their primary money making activity by trolling patents. Finally, we come to Round Rock Research LLC which is a notorious patent troll that owns 3,652 patents almost three times that of Acacia. RRR has built a reputation for being a troll and using troll like tactics to get these fees out of big name firms. Overall, this seems like a hindrance to innovation.