Patent trolls are stifling innovation.
Using overbroad patents based on dated technology, trolls threaten litigation and bring infringement suits against inventors. Trolls, also known as Non-Practicing Entities (“NPEs”), typically do not produce products or services, but are in the business of litigation. They lie in wait for someone to create a process or product that has some relationship to the patent held by the troll, and then they pounce with threats and lawsuits. The cost to the economy is staggering.
Watkins calls attention to this problem and the challenges it poses to maintaining a robust rate of technologically progress. He also examines a more fundamental problem: an outmoded patent system that is fundamentally ill suited for the modern economy. Finally, he examines proposals for reforming the patent system.
“In Patent Trolls, William J. Watkins, Jr. explores the socially unproductive, albeit privately profitable, activities of firms that produce nothing but litigation. Watkins has produced a readable and forceful indictment of this exploitation of the patent system.”
“In Patent Trolls, William Watkins provides a thorough, yet surprisingly concise and readable, description of one of the most serious problems facing technological innovators: patent litigation and patent trolls. Thoroughly researched and documented, this book should be read by all who are concerned about the decline in America's competitiveness in the world market."
“Williams Watkins, Jr.’s Patent Trolls makes a powerful and urgent case for patent reform. Instead of fostering innovation, the current regime encourages legal artifice and extortion. Watkins' proposals for common sense reforms should be the starting point for this vital national discussion for change.”
“Patents are supposed to reward innovators but too often they reward dubious legal innovations and rent-seeking schemes. In the well-written monograph, Patent Trolls, William Watkins examines patent trolls, the laws and practices that give them power, and their effect on innovation. Watkins offers cogent advice on how the trolls may be tamed.”
