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The Writing Process

By Troll Tracker

When I started this blog, I just wanted to focus on the great many patent cases being brought by companies that make no products, and exist solely to license patents and monetize them. There was a convenient term already out there -- I'm not Peter Detkin, so I didn't coin it. So I used it: patent troll. I guess I didn't expect all the kerfuffle that would cause among those who make a living monetizing intellectual property. Even Ray Niro used the term in his chapter in the book Making Innovation Pay - albeit while arguing that these so-called patent trolls were beneficial to society. Right next to the picture of him with his Ferrari near his Aspen home.

Anyway, over the last few months I have begun to transition out the term. It doesn't add anything to the dialogue; in fact, it distracts from the message I'm trying to get across. That message being that patents are not being asserted like they were 20 years ago, that today's American small and large businesses have to navigate a minefield like never before. Whether the plaintiffs are well-deserving individual inventors, their shell corporations, or large licensing entities solely seeking to monetize patents, it adds up for the mom-and-pop businesses and the big corporations alike. All I want to do is highlight who is behind these cases, who is backing them financially, and where these cases are being litigated. And if we can have some fun along the way, and not take ourselves so seriously, all the better, right?

This whole "reward" business has obviously created a roadblock in my quest. Mr. Niro claims to be close - he may even know who I am already. So be it. This blog, or others like it, will continue whether I'm unmasked or not. In fact, I won't be surprised if others plan similar types of information-gathering services. For profit, of course. (I knew I should have patented this business method).

So I'll continue on for a while, see how it goes. But despite the fact that the vast majority of my readers when surveyed said they aren't offended by the term patent troll, I'm going to cut back on my use, if not stop using it altogether. You can make your own conclusions.

Many of you wrote in comments in the survey that you don't see how I get the time to write as much as I do. This post took 20 minutes, including writing and editing. There was no research involved. Most of my posts, including research, writing, and editing, take 30-45 minutes, and I do about 4 a week. I tend to think of my ideas for a post while exercising - and usually desperately scribbling notes when I'm done so I don't forget. Some posts (Fortune 100) take longer than others.

My estimate is that over the course of a year, I probably will have sacrificed 200 billable hours to this blog. Lucky for me, I'm a workaholic, so due to the massive hours I have put up in the past, nobody is going to miss those billable hours. I do much of my writing on the weekend.

For example, due to the fact I'm definitely crammed with work this week, I already wrote this week's posts. Unless something earth-shattering happens, this week I'm featuring a look back at entities I have featured in the past. On Monday, I have a dream that I'll feature Acacia, and their efforts to make all inventors equal. Well, I'll focus only on Paul Ware and J. Carl Cooper on Monday, but these are impressive inventors, and their litigation is no less impressive.

If any new cases are filed this week -- well, they'll have to wait until I extricate myself from this pile of paper.

Full post as published by Patent Troll Tracker on January 19, 2008 (boomark / email).