Coleridge and Babington would have felt right at home discussing the frenzy of reforms to patent law proposed in light of the crisis brought about by nonpracticing entities (also known as NPEs or patent trolls). The Babingtons believe that the very foundation of intellectual property is crumbling, and that major reform is needed to prevent its collapse. The Coleridges see a risk of unintended consequences and advise caution.
The proposals are coming from the White House, Congress and even individual states. There are some overlap and also some serious outliers. Much of the debate has been driven by statistics showing that the number of lawsuits by NPEs has surpassed those brought by operating companies. There are about 4,000 such suits each year; slightly more than half of them by NPEs.
