When ordinary activities like using Wi-Fi in a coffee shop or updating smartphone apps provokes lawsuits you know something is seriously amiss with the legal system, That has been the state of play for some time in the US - but perhaps not for much longer, Last week, US president Barack Obama announced a series of measures that he hopes will finally end the scourge of "patent trolls". Identifying these trolls may not be so easy, though, The term patent troll is slang for a firm that buys up obvious patents that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) should never have granted in the first place, The troll then "asserts" these patents by threatening to sue businesses that infringe them. Many will then settle out of court and pay an often business-crippling licence fee.
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