In the sleepy village of Santa Clara, there lived a very wealthy but very frightened giant named Intel. Intel was plagued by a fearsome band of evil trolls -- patent trolls, to be exact -- who wanted a glittering pot of gold in exchange for doing absolutely nothing. And they were very powerful because they said they owned the patent on some of the magic Intel used to become rich."

Europe not only accommodates patent trolls (even in Belgium) but it also intends to make them more potent thanks to legislation that the Parliament in Brussels in discussing

McKesson, Android and G1 hit by patent trolls .

Patent news about Free software, Microsoft, and Microsoft-affiliated patent trolls

Since 2004 that exploitation has increased, with litigation by NPEs rising from around 500 cases per year to 2600 in 2010.patent trolls

Microsoft has been trying anything from copyright libel to patent trolls to actually suing companies like TomTom (after using extortion), so what are the implications?

Why patent trolls or puppets like Acacia (and Microsoft) do manage to cause harm to Linux, even when their case is altogether bogus

Behind the ACTA stands the “copyrights cartel,” as Dan Gillmor refers to it. It’s obvious what the problem is (or is not). What’s lesser known, however, is the impact which these abominable laws can have on patent trolls and their victims.

When you're driving down the highway and you see a spotless white tanker truck with a big green tree painted on the side, you can be pretty sure that it's full of hazardous waste. Likewise, companies with "innovation" in their names are generally innovation-hostile patent trolls.