My company, Intellectual Ventures, is misunderstood. We have been reviled as a patent troll—a renegade outfit that buys up patents and then uses them to hold up innocent companies. What we’re really trying to do is create a capital market for inventions akin to the venture capital market that supports start-ups and the private equity market that revitalizes inefficient companies.
Sorry Nathan, your company is not misunderstood. You really are patent trolls abusing a broken patent system that does more to hurt the software infrastructure than it does to help it. The best thing that could happen to our profession is that the Supreme Court could hand down a decision that renders all software patents invalid in the USA. The grievous harm that would inflict on your company and business model would just be icing on the cake. We need fewer parasites on useful work.
Of course you don't agree with me. I bet you still think that Hungarian notation is a great thing as well.