On patent trolls & the 500 billion: The Private and Social Costs of Patent Trolls (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1930272) Abstract: In the past, non-practicing entities (NPEs) - firms that license patents without producing goods - have facilitated technology markets and increased rents for small inventors. Is this also true for today’s NPEs? Or are they “patent trolls” who opportunistically litigate over software patents with unpredictable boundaries? Using stock market event studies around patent lawsuit filings, we find that NPE lawsuits are associated with half a trillion dollars of lost wealth to defendants from 1990 through 2010, mostly from technology companies. Moreover, very little of this loss represents a transfer to small inventors. Instead, it implies reduced innovation incentives.
Also some great TIL about German vs Uk innovation.
Even most patent attny's that are more than happy making money off this broken systems excesses agree that there many serious problems abound
But, regarding the do-it-yourself-part, no, not really. First, the amount of work you have to do is a full-time job. Most people already have a full-time job, so it's not an option to deal with a civil case full-time. Second, there are many rules and regulations that a lay-person will just not know. It's not feasible for them to deal with a civil suit on their own. And, unlike criminal cases, in the US, you have no right to a lawyer for civil cases.
One of the things to remember about civil lawsuits are that the parties are generally treated as if they are on equal footing, and the standard of proof is "preponderance of the evidence", rather than "beyond reasonable doubt".
The criminal justice system is setup to mitigate the advantage of the government over the accused in a case that could result in loss of freedom (or even loss of life). The civil "justice" system is there to resolve disputes between theoretically equal parties in cases that mostly come down to money.
In practice, of course, our adversarial system gets thrown completely out of whack by that same money, but for the moment, the law is what it is.
The only way I can describe it is that its like a artery of someone that keeps eating bacon long after their doctor advised them to stop. The space keeps getting blocked up more and more. It is inevitable that serious problems are bound to occur and cause ever greater friction to innovation.