In todays patent troll news Sony is being sued over the cell processor. The patent Sony is alleged to have infringed is here. Why is Parallel Processing a patent troll? Simple: Parallel Processing, or more precisely Rob Chang to whom the patent was issued, has contributed little or nothing of social value. Read the patent: does it help you build a parallel processor? No. The basic ideas underlying parallel processing have been known for decades; the devil is in the details - which types of decentralization of processing and memory work well under practical conditions and with particular hardware. The Sony Cell is the product of a few cheap ideas and a lot of expensive tinkering. There is no evidence Rob Chang or Parallel Processing contributed to this process. So they have no moral or economic claim on Sony. And since they lack moral claim and are trying to file a financial claim that makes them trolls.

The sad thing is - it wouldn't be that hard to improve the patent system to get rid of this type of claim. Just force patent holders to provide evidence of having contributed in a substantial way to product they are claiming belongs to them.

Moral claim?

How on earth can anyone have a moral claim to the suspension of the public's liberty?

Patents don't even forgive coincidental independent invention. It's first-to-file wins the monopoly.

If the state had any consideration at all for inventors it would let them all build upon mankind's knowledge (published works), and help them protect their private intellectual property (unpublished designs, plans, drawings, materials, prototypes, etc.), and protect a free market in the products they manufactured.

That design monopolies are permitted/encouraged in the market to reward filing (instead of the natural selection of free markets) cannot fail to breed monstrosities that not only aren't innovative, but aren't even commercially viable.

Patents are immoral, let alone claims to them.