The intention of the patent system was to promote the useful proliferation of the sciences and arts. Billion-dollar verdicts to companies that do not even produce a marketable product are the antithesis of that intention. It is not clear to me how to solve this problem aside from tearing down the patent system and never rebuilding it. Gone are the days when an inventor in their garage is prevented from the exploitation of a large company by virtue of a patent they filed for their invention. Now, holding companies exist to absorb patents that describe the most abstract and nebulous ideas in order to leech the maximal value from real companies, and courts like this enable them.
End the patent system. (I'd be happy if we even just got rid of software patents on the existing basis that math cannot be patented, but while I'm on my soapbox, might as well go all the way.)
The intention of the patent system was to promote the useful proliferation of the sciences and arts. Billion-dollar verdicts to companies that do not even produce a marketable product are the antithesis of that intention. It is not clear to me how to solve this problem aside from tearing down the patent system and never rebuilding it. Gone are the days when an inventor in their garage is prevented from the exploitation of a large company by virtue of a patent they filed for their invention. Now, holding companies exist to absorb patents that describe the most abstract and nebulous ideas in order to leech the maximal value from real companies, and courts like this enable them.
End the patent system. (I'd be happy if we even just got rid of software patents on the existing basis that math cannot be patented, but while I'm on my soapbox, might as well go all the way.)