The September 2007 edition of LESI‘s journal (les Nouvelles) contained a really interesting piece about the economic effects of patent ‘trolls’. The piece, written by some of the team at NERA Economic Consulting and LECG, argues that the ‘trolls’ aren’t necessarily bad for business.
One of the interesting arguments they raise is essentially that by acquiring patents to assert them, trolls increase the value of patents and thereby their liquidity. (They’re not saying that increased value itself increases liquidity, only that for patents it will.) Liquidity is good for patent owners as a whole as the asset class becomes more valuable.
I’m sure Bruce Berman, who has been consistently decrying troll bashing for some years would agree.
What do you think?