Assignment 8 part 4- Patent Trolls story
Based on the Harvard Business Review Article- https://hbr.org/2014/07/the-evidence-is-in-patent-trolls-do-hurt-innovation

This post is about a Harvard Business review article which discusses patent trolls and specifically if patent trolls have a net negative impact of innovation. The assertion is that having patent trolls decreases companies freedom to experiment and develop new technologies because every step of the way they will be sued by patent trolls whether these lawsuits are founded or spurious.

The White House and the Congressional Research Service both quoted research studies that conclude that patent litigation harms innovation but not necessarily distinguishing between legitimate claims and patent trolls.

There were 6 times as many patent related lawsuits in 2014 than in the 1980s and the number of companies sued by patent trolls grew nine fold in the last ten years. According to Haber and Levine the majority of patent related lawsuits are by Patent trolls.

Some counter that increased patent litigation is simply a sign of a health economy with more innovation happening and not necessarily just due to patent trolls.

In aggregate, patent trolls cost defendants 29 billion every year in direct costs. Overall these litigations in aggregate decrease firms wealth by 60 billion per year. On average the damages from a patent infringement is 21 million. This is money that is taken away from innovative companies and thus decreases funding for innovation.