Numbers Don't Lie: Patent Trolls Are A Plague

Recent research supports view that patent troll activity is rising -- costing America a fortune in wasted legal fees and lost jobs

Jeff Bezos is not the most obvious advocate for change to the patent system. The founder and driving force behind Amazon, he has in the past encouraged his staff to file for controversial Web patents on obvious ideas like "one click to buy." Under his guidance, Amazon has wielded those patents as part of lawsuits against competitors; the one-click patent was used against Barnes & Noble, for example. At one point, the Free Software Foundation was even coordinating a boycott of Amazon as a result.

Bezos is no bleeding-heart patent liberal. Yet in London this week, he told local newspaper Metro: 

Patents are supposed to encourage innovation and we're starting to be in a world where they might start to stifle innovation. Governments may need to look at the patent system and see if those laws need to be modified because I don't think some of these battles are healthy for society...