Patent trolls on the rise: Now up by 60 percent from the second half of 2014

From big tech giants to small firms, everyone has been embroiled in patent wars these days. According to a report by Vox, the patent problem has now worsened as there has been a significant rise in patent trolls. Citing data collected by the patent defence organisation Unified patents, the Vox report states, “between January and June 2014 the Supreme Court ruled on a record six patent cases and in all six cases, the Court unanimously sided with accused patent infringers against patent holders”. During the second half of 2014, patent lawsuits decreased, but patent litigation were back up in the first half of 2015. Interestingly, the number of lawsuits by ‘patent trolls’ in the first half of 2015 is now up by 60 percent from the second half of 2014, and about 15 percent more compared to the first half of 2014. The comparison chart below shows number of lawsuits brought by non-practicing entities (NPE) in orange, also known as patent trolls. This means, they have no product of your own and make money just by suing companies that infringe their patents (usually by accident). [caption id=“attachment_274066” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image: UnifiedPatents[/caption] The orange bars show the number of lawsuits brought by “non-practicing entities.” These organisations, more commonly known as patent trolls, make no products of their own but make money by suing other companies that infringe on their patents — usually by accident. On the other hand, blue bars reveal patent lawsuits by companies that built products, not just file for patents or make money using patents. Earlier this year, **Smartflash** had a $532.9 million jury win against Apple. Soon after that, the company was ready with another lawsuit against Apple for patent infringement. It should be noted that Smartflash LLC makes nothing, sells nothing and has no workers. The company has yet managed to make millions out of Apple.