The new post-grant patent challenge scheme has made it a lot harder to enforce patents. Now, an accused infringer can file a post-grant review request and tie things up for a year or two, even if they lose. During that period, it's almost impossible to license the patent. The patent holder has to defend against the post-grant review, which is expensive.

There are few real "patent trolls". The EFF's list is very short.[1] Only one law firm, Farney Daniels, is listed as having sent out more than 3 demand letters. This isn't a big problem.

You need to own intellectual property if, for example, you're writing for Apple's platform. If your idea is a success, Apple copies it and then turns off your platform access. Look what just happened to Pebble.

[1] https://trollingeffects.org/lawfirms