As this blog was open to interpretation within the realm of patent trolls, I looked to my classmate Won Soh for guidance on a topic to structure this discussion about. This blog post will focus primarily on the origin of the term "Patent Troll" which we are currently focused on in class. Through the use of the word "troll", the term may seem funny and light-hearted upon first glance, but my last post's definition indicates just how serious Patent Trolls can be.
The "Patent Troll" term, before its current form, referred to countries that would file very threatening lawsuits regarding patents. Following the 1994 educational video on patents though, the term was more officially coined as two green trolls demanded licensing fees in a portrayal of the term's meaning. Now, although the term has taken the form of a few different definitions, its most common are
1. a referral to people who purchase patents and sue another company
2. a referral to people who enforce patents without any manufacturing base
Following PricewaterhouseCoopers's 2014 research on NPEs, they declared that all NPEs should be declared as patent trolls and directly decreased the confusion between the terms. Prior to this, "patent pirate"was confused with non-practicing entity and "patent shark". PWC effectively quelled the differences between all these different terms, and encouraged more uniformity with this term in order to quell confusion in all matters regarding patentability.
I hope you all enjoyed my research into the origin of the term "Patent Troll". Looking forward to reading your comments!
I really enjoyed this look into the history of the term patent troll. Great choice of topic! I personally enjoy the name patent pirate the most but it's cool how PWC is trying to foster uniformity.
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