Comment Re:Who picks these "standards" anyway? (Score 3, Insightful) 193
One of the biggest patent trolls in the world is acknowledged to be Intellectual Ventures. And they do original research of their own too.
Agreed.
Doing original research isn't sufficient to escape being considered a patent troll.
Also true.
As far as income, IV gets a lot from the companies that have bought a stake in their operations. They aren't solely funded by patent income either.
Also true.
Now CSIRO may be a research organization. But this business model of turning government funding into lawsuits around the world is patent trolling. Sorry if you don't like it, but that's the way it is.
Here you go astray. You pointed out many similaries between IV and CSIRO, but failed to note the major differences.
This quote from Wikipedia shows the major difference (emphasis added):
Investigative journalism suggests that the company makes most of its income from lawsuits and licensing of already-existing inventions, rather than from its own innovation. Intellectual Ventures has been described as a "patent troll" by Shane Robison, CTO of Hewlett Packard and others, allegedly accumulating patents not in order to develop products around them but with the goal to pressure large companies into paying licensing fees.
I argue that a company is a patent troll if they are suing others using patents for technology they neither invented nor use. Basically patent trolling is the use of patents purchased from third parties for the sole purpose of suing other companies. Either invention or real use of the patent in question is enough to keep you from being categorized as a patent troll.