Now that he’s back in action, Cascades Ventures Inc. founder Anthony Brown has noticed some funny changes in the patent trolling business.
For one thing, says Brown, who was once dubbed the “original patent troll,” the T-word doesn’t get tossed around quite as frequently as it did a decade ago. Instead, the current lingo for companies like Cascades that specialize in securing patent licensing deals (as opposed to making actual products) is the more politically correct “nonpracticing entity” or NPE. What’s more, says Brown, the patent licensing business has attracted a crowd. Back in 1998, when the former corporate partner at Jenner & Block launched his first licensing firmTechSearch LLCBrown pretty much had the field to himself, he recalls.
