Patent trolls still have it rolling. Also, the legal system is pretty fscked up everywhere else as well. People could be sued for having a greener lawn than their neighbours. Yes, very ridiculous. And yet, they would still have to defend their case in order to not lose.
Patents can be written about pretty much everything. Just make it confusing enough that it could be used to mean absolutely anything. Got a patent about "a spatially-aware device for local manipulations in a software-based environment" ? Can be used against mouse-makers, wiimote manufacturers, trackball makers, etc...... you're only limited by the creativity of the lawyiers who wrote such applications (it's not unusual for lawyers to spends weeks/months just writing the patent applications in a vague and deceptive way, in all cases spending much more time of just the application than on any real work or other efforts).
Litigation does not happen to force discontinuation of violations (cease and desist), thats just a ploy to get extortion money (by letting "violations" occur till they reach a critically large point, the trolls gain extra ground for their claims. also, they can claim damages and similar "losses" (when none has been suffered).
Does anyone remember the
GIF patent trolls? Conveniently coming out from under their rock just after GIF became popular.
Last edited by Hard core Rikki; May 15th, 2008 at 19:13..