Malodorous Acacia

I've written about what promises to become the patent troll extraordinaire, but here's another, er, specimen. C|net introduces us to the head of Acacia Technologies Group, but don't be fooled by the name. Its patent-based business is anything but fragrant, despite what the interviewee might have you think:

It's the patent system that enabled people like Thomas Edison who actually developed the new technologies, which these companies then want to use to make money without paying for. The invention process is critical to the growth of the US economy and it's the smaller companies that usually come up with the new innovations and disruptive technologies that then the larger companies want to adopt. There's no one forcing them to add these features to their products. Obviously, they're doing it because they can make more money using the new features that were patented by someone else.

For a thoroughgoing refutation of this and other widespread misconceptions about patents and copyright, do read the brilliant Against Intellectual Monopoly by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine, freely available from here. (Via TechDirt.)