Oxford University Press's
Academic Insights for the Thinking World

  • Author: Ron D. Katznelson

How the US government invented and exploited the “patent troll” hold-up myth

A patent like other property rights is a right to exclude others and not a right or an obligation to make the patented invention. Yet today there is a growing campaign by certain industry sectors and the government against patent holders that do not make any products but enforce their patent rights for licensing revenues, often pejoratively called patent “trolls.”

Read More