EFF: Urge your alma mater to not feed the patent trolls

Maybe you, like me, did not even know that universities are selling patents secured by their employee researchers to patent trolls. Maybe you did.

In either case, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is looking to curb this unproductive practice by harnessing the persuasive powers alumni. The EFF explains:

When universities invent, those inventions should benefit everyone. Unfortunately, they sometimes end up in the hands of patent trolls, companies that serve no purpose but to amass patents and demand money from other innovators and inventors.

Why are universities selling patents to trolls in the first place? Shouldn’t they sell their inventions to companies that will actually do something with them?

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Network World Paul McNamara