Make that almost never.
For Anthony Brown, CEO of a new NPE on the block called Cascades Ventures, notoriety may be an asset. The one-time Jenner & Block partner inspired former Intel in-house lawyer Peter Detkin to coin the term “patent troll” a decade ago, referring to Brown, his company TechSearch, and their lawyer, Raymond Niro of Niro, Haller & Niro. From the late 1990s until about six years ago, TechSearch helped to pioneer the art of buying up patents and using infringement litigation as a club to win licensing deals. In 2006, IP Law & Business dubbed TechSearch and Niro “the original patent troll.”