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People that lash out at patent trolls have a lot in common with tea partiers. Neither realize that they are simply regurgitating corporate talking points. Both have failed to think critically about what they think they are angry about.

Let me explain.

Patent trolls are just non-practicing entities. They own patent rights, but don't "practice" them - they do not manufacture and sell products covered by the patents they own.

Many inventors can't practice their inventions because they don't have the resources to manufacture and market a product. Instead, many choose to reap the fruits of their their inventions by licensing them to companies that do have manufacturing and marketing capacity. Of course, convincing a large corporation to pay you royalties also requires an enormous amount of time and money. Patent litigation can cost millions. So instead, some inventors decide to simply sell their patent rights to a firm like Intellectual Ventures (one of the most prolific patent trolls in the world) who can afford to enforce them.

Is it annoying for corporations to deal with patent suits? Of course. But, does that mean we should abrogate someone's rights? Is IP owned by someone without the capacity to exploit it somehow invalid? Of course not.

By that logic we should allow corporations to take people's land just because they can make more beneficial use of it. That is an un-American way to view individual property rights.

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