When is a troll not a troll? When it's a business trying to assert its rights in an evolving technology market.
By MATHEW INGRAM
Thursday, June 2, 2005 Page B14
TECHNOLOGY REPORTER
That may not sound like much of a riddle -- unless you follow the intellectual property industry. While the troll from the children's tale lived under a bridge and forced travellers to pay him in order to cross, so-called "patent trolls" send legal letters warning companies that their products are infringing on patents, and asking for millions of dollars in licensing fees.
The person widely credited with coining the term is Peter Detkin, former assistant general counsel at Intel Corp. He used the term to describe a company that unsuccessfully sued Intel for about $8-billion (U.S.) in licensing fees, based on a patent it bought for $50,000. (He actually called Chicago-based TechSearch "patent extortionists," but changed it to troll after the company sued him for libel.)
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