Businessweek has a special report on “Patent Trolls†one of the favourite topics of patent critics. In the article Ron Epstein explains how the Patent troll or Non Practicing Entity can be a good thing.
One of the good things about the NPE is that they can act as a gatekeeper for smaller inventors pooling patents taking up the fight with larger companies. The NPE´s will either be an innovator who failed to market their innovation or a patent investor trying to turn patents to profit.
On the surface Epsteins arguments are nice enough, but in my opinion many incidents involving the NPE´s tell a slightly different story. Many of the NPE´s historically invest in very flimsy patents and fire broadsides of lawsuits and infringement letters. This has helped build the reputation of the business. And I think it’s legitimate to question how much value they add generally speaking. Epstein claim that the NPE´s are representatives of the individual inventor. Looking at R&D investment statistics and patents granted to organisations it is clear that the majority of innovation is not carried out by the lone inventor. Â
 So all in all im not convinced that the patent trolls or NPE´s are the good guys all the way.