Both work for me. When people trumpet their altruism, I usually don’t buy it.

I don’t really care about geohotz motivation though. Glad to see someone with the means standing up to the trolls.

Incidentally, can you invalidate a patent, so the troll can't use it any more, if the troll declines to defend the patent? Can they just walk away, and then assert it against some other mark?

But it seems rather odd; in normal civil proceedings, you have an adversary against whom you allege some kind of wrongdoing. Who is your adversary if you are attacking a patent that nobody cares to defend? Can you bring a case against the patent itself?

I understand that in parts of the USA, the police can sue a car, a house, or a sackful of cash, so it's not beyond reason.

If they just threaten you, can still sue the patent owner for a "declaratory judgement" that their patent is invalid, though you have to show harm in order for the court to hear the case. So if they promise not to sue or your customers, the case may get dismissed.

You can always file an Inter Partes Review at the patent office to attack any patent.

I see. So that sounds like the simplest, clearest course. Presumably it's in practice the most difficult, expensive and time-consuming route.

You need to be able to afford it.

Plenty of troll settlements happen where the sued party could've afforded fighting it