Lee Cheng’s Brilliant Story on Why Patent Trolls are Difficult to Defeat

Patent trolls, any large company knows, are very annoying. They’re also disturbingly resilient.

They go to great lengths to manipulate companies and courts, feeding off large companies’ balance sheets with phony patents to suck millions from legitimately innovative firms. And far too often, they win.

Lee Cheng, an attorney for Newegg, created a rare exception when in 2007 a patent troll—which had already successfully got millions of dollars from Gap and Amazon—sued the company and he decided to fight back. In a fantastic interview hosted by Ars Technica, the brilliant Cheng details at length his battle with the patent troll and how he scored a rare victory.

His story, which makes for an excellent hour-long listen, will hopefully inspire others to not just settle with patent trolls (which, of course, is exactly what they always hope for).

Canada Can’t Ignore the Patent Troll