> It seems unlikely they are "without merit" in the legal sense, since then they would be thrown out at the first hearing.
In all patent troll cases I've seen, a patent exists, and the defendant is actually infringing the patent. So there is some merit to the lawsuit.
The problem is that the "inventions" in the patents:
* are not novel, or
* are not non-obvious, or
* have not been described in sufficient detail to replicate without further research, or
* a combination of all of the above for various claims in the patent.
so the patent should never have been issued in the first place. But invalidating the patent in court is a tedious and expensive process. You need many expert witnesses debating what is novel, what is non-obvious, and what is sufficiently detailed, it's not something a judge can decide in 10 minutes.
In all patent troll cases I've seen, a patent exists, and the defendant is actually infringing the patent. So there is some merit to the lawsuit.
The problem is that the "inventions" in the patents:
* are not novel, or
* are not non-obvious, or
* have not been described in sufficient detail to replicate without further research, or
* a combination of all of the above for various claims in the patent.
so the patent should never have been issued in the first place. But invalidating the patent in court is a tedious and expensive process. You need many expert witnesses debating what is novel, what is non-obvious, and what is sufficiently detailed, it's not something a judge can decide in 10 minutes.