Ok, lets hear you argue for what service a patent troll provides.

They provide a license to said patent? Pretty obvious - this is not to say that patent trolls are good, though.

If you're licensing a patent to others with reasonable terms, it's not a patent troll.

I understand you think they provide a service since you seem to not understand what a patent troll is.

As a reminder, a patent troll company is a company "that attempts to enforce patent rights against accused infringers far beyond the patent's actual value or contribution to the prior art" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll)

They don't sell any services, don't do any (reasonable) licensing, nor provide any goods.

Patent trolling is not a company category, rather a behavior of a company. Furthermore patents themselves are goods that can be licensed, so my point stands.

Not to mention “trolling” is already passing judgement on the activity to begin with. The actual service is licensing. I’ll leave it to the courts to determine whether enforcement of patents qualifies as trolling or not.

> Patent trolling is not a company category

Oh I'm sorry. I meant to say "Patent Trolling Companies", is it easier to understand now?

I'm sure you are aware that there actually is a category of companies that just participate in "patent trolling", and do nothing else. Not sure why you're being so pedantic about the grammar instead of trying to reply to the actual arguments...

Seems like if you've only come up with patent trolls, then "plenty of companies" doesn't apply. Patent trolls weaponise the legal system against other companies. They exist because the government can't make a good enough patent system.

They don't seem to be significant enough to the overall general statement that companies exist to serve their customers with goods and/or services.

> Seems like if you've only come up with patent trolls

I'm not sure how valuable it is to argue with someone who cannot read two messages up in the message hierarchy...

> I'm not sure how valuable it is to argue with someone who cannot read two messages up in the message hierarchy...

Do you mean the one you mentioned 4 messages up? And dropped with this?

> Ok, lets hear you argue for what service a patent troll provides.

Sure - the one you dropped was domain flipping. Clearly buying something at a certain price and then selling it again is not nothing - that's why people pay for it. Just like house flipping. Or just buying anything speculatively. I assume you realised that, and dropped it for that reason.

Look at the corporate raiders of the 1980s. Firing people, loading up a company with debt. And taking them bankrupt makes a ton of money for private equity. No product required, immensely profitable!