Apple Ordered to Pay $625M to Patent Troll in FaceTime Lawsuit
I have a modest proposal to get rid of these patent trolls and these ridiculous settlements that typically are decided by a jury of West Texas farmers.<p>Patents ought to be designated a non-transferrable property. Inventors may create a trust that receives patent revenues, and direct those revenues to any entity they please (their own company, their heirs, another company, a charity, etc.) but would not be able to actually sell the patents to any other company or individual.<p>Then, patent holding companies would evaporate, and the revenue for ideas would go to those who created the ideas.  If a company created many patents, say, Kodak, then goes out of business, it would leave behind a trust that would continue to receive revenue on those patents until they expired.  If you choose not to, you can forfeit the patent and then it becomes public domain.