RIM (Research In Motion) is the wireless solutions manufacturer behind the popular Blackberry wireless platform, and its protracted legal battle with patent-holding company NTP represents such a low point in patent law’s chequered past that it’s seen by some observers as a potential catalyst for widespread reform. It is, in fact, a trolling masterclass. “These companies have no intention to create a product. â€?All they intend to do is exploit companies that do make consumer products, and that’s wrong from any angle you look at it.â€? Founded by Thomas Campana Jr, a communications engineer who owned eight 1991 patents related to the transmission of emails through paging networks, NTP’s sole function was to administer and economically exploit those patents, which it did over four years at the expense of alleged patent-infringer RIM, culminating in an out-of-court settlement of over 600 million.

AVG (American Video Graphics), meanwhile, acquired a series of patents filed in 1987 by William G. Waller of innovations company Tektronix, Inc. Two of these, brought in 2004, had particularly far reaching implications for common console development practices, and the company proceeded to sue 12 separate publishers for infringement. The primary technology involved was that of spherical panning – a camera movement and zoom technique in which the camera moves around a specific focal object. In its case against Sega, the company’s lawyers cited Super Monkey Ball 2 as an offending example. Recent financial filings by Atari, meanwhile, disclosed an AVG-related settlement of $300,000.