> By launching the mother of all trolls to the disgust of the industry at large, they're adding fuel to the fire and making it more likely that stronger anti-troll legislation will pass.
As I understand it, this company was formed during the purchase of the Nortel patents, which happened a couple of years ago. Not just right now. The company which was formed from investment of Apple, Microsoft, etc, is not under their direct control anymore. They basically paid a bunch of money to grant themselves immunity from these patents while creating a hazard / barrier to others.
They intentionally put the patents in the hands of a troll. Moreover, since the trolls generally don't have the capital to buy the patents up front, the transfer deals generally involve the selling party getting a large cut of the shakedown money the troll collects from its victims, so it's quite likely that they haven't recovered what they paid for the patents.
The fact that the timing of this happening at the same time as patent reform is on the table wasn't predictable some years ago is just part of the point -- you can't always predict blowback. The risk is part of the cost.
As I understand it, this company was formed during the purchase of the Nortel patents, which happened a couple of years ago. Not just right now. The company which was formed from investment of Apple, Microsoft, etc, is not under their direct control anymore. They basically paid a bunch of money to grant themselves immunity from these patents while creating a hazard / barrier to others.