While reading the "Patents, Profit, and People" chapter of Stiglitz's book, I was reminded of a news report I heard over the summer detailing the rise of patent trolls. Here's a recent podcast done by a Boston University Law Lecturer, James Bessen, that explains the patent troll phenomenon in detail. Essentially, patent trolls are companies that buy up patents (specifically, what Bessen calls "garbage patents", patents that are broad and unclear) and then file lawsuits against companies for infringing upon these patents. Bessen headed a study that discovered that law suits filed by patent trolls could be held accountable for hundreds of billions of lost revenue. Bessen then continues, postulating that the patent trolls aren't just siphoning away money, but they are also slowing innovation, since tech companies need to settle lawsuits for new software or technologies before they can hit the market. This relates back to Stiglitz's point that the current patent system needs reform, since there are cases, such as patent trolls, where patents are actually stifling innovation.
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