So sad that companies are forced to prevent patent trolls by buying up patents. I doubt a group of friends could invent a successful tech product in their garage in today's cruel legal world.
This has absolutely nothing to do with patent trolls. Patent trolls, by definition, do not make, sell, import, or use products that practice the patents they are asserting. Since a troll doesn't make anything, the victim having his own patents is useless- he can't sue the troll in retaliation.
Remember that having these patents doesn't give these companies the right to practice them - it only gives them the right to stop OTHERS from practicing them. So this patent purchase is helpful only for use against non-trolls, like competitors.
So does each company have access to all patents both for products and legal offense/defense?
Probably they all have a cross-license (so none of the companies can sue any of the other companies), but each has their own portion of the patents to use as they see fit (against companies not in the group).
It's still against anti-trust laws to withhold a group of patents vital to an industry.
Says who?
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