Its almost as if the patent office should be disbanded entirely. The courts will sort it all out.

Some countries have this system, e.g., I think Belgium at least used to grant patents without examination. A patentee would then sue and the validity would be taken up for the first time upon suit.

I am under the impression that it is an easier defense (at least "we patented this because that's what we're doing, so either your patent which postdates ours is the same, so it's invalid, or not, so we're not infringing it"), even if you don't get to countersue a non-troll competitor. That is, while you still have to go to court against a troll, having your own duplicate patent means you're less likely to lose, which is even more onerous than just paying for lawyer time.

(I don't base this on any particular courtroom experience with this, though, so maybe I'm totally wrong.)

>Trolls make nothing and have nothing to cross license or lose.

Rightly said, patent trolls just seeks for the opportunities to exploit a company's portfolio and gain some settlement bucks from them.

However I am a little confused about how patenting bitcoins is going to affect us/industry/other banks? if they are not going to sue anyone.