Patent trolling in court.

• Position: List - Brief article

William J. Watkins Jr., a research fellow at the Independent Institute, is the author of the August monograph Patent Trolls: Predatory Litigation and the Smothering of Innovation. Watkins' book argues that patent lawsuits from "nonpracticing entities"--"patent trolls" who accumulate intellectual property just to sue people using similar ideas-- cost the U.S. economy billions and deter the diffusion of ideas. In September, Watkins described three important patent lawsuits:

1 In NTP Inc. v. Research in Motion Ltd. (2005), patent troll NTP brought an infringement action to shut down the BlackBerry system and settled the case for $612.5 million. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ultimately reexamined NTP's patents and found they were invalid.

2 In eBay Inc. v. MercExchange L.L.C. (2006), a unanimous Supreme...