An insidious side-effect of patent trolls is that they make their money mainly through intimidation. Threaten a big company with a lawsuit and 9 times out of 10 their IP staff will say something like “Well, we can probably win in court, but it will cost $X”. The bean counters will then do the math and write a check for some sizable fraction of $X, saving time and money and patting themselves on the back for avoiding a worse outcome.
But who pays? You and me, bucko. A patent troll cost my former employer $300K for a totally baseless allegation just like I’ve described above. Not because we’d infringed, but because $300K was cheaper than the cost to fight the bastards.
“A patent troll cost my former employer $300K for a totally baseless allegation just like I’ve described above.”
Courts allow defendants of baseless patent suits to recover the costs of litigation against both the plaintiff and the plaintiff’s attorney.
This is not to say that people still don’t abuse the patent system, but there are remedies to the worst of such abusers.