Check out Peter Zura's 271 Patent blog for his recap of 2005 as the Year of the Patent Troll and the associated lively dialogue from those on both sides of this issue.
For example:
While there is a conventional wisdom to view every patent being asserted by a holding company as a "bad" patent, this is not typically the case in reality.
I do not see "ordinary individuals" being empowered by patent holding companies. Most of these companies are backed by an amount of funding that is unattainable for ordinary individuals.
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