IGBT
Lifer
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Niro also holds the dubious distinction of being the first patent troll. In 2001 Intel Corporation assistant general counsel Peter Detkin coined the term to characterize Niro and his client TechSearch LLC when Intel was defending a patent suit against them. "Troll was a derivative of, er, me," says Niro. "I'm the first." He's hardly the last: Niro and his millions have inspired waves of impersonators.
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it has complicated Niro's business model. Over the past decade, some corporations have grown tired of paying licensing fees to patent holders without products. They've started lobbying Congress to change the patent laws. The issue has become so hotly debated that in May the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in, finding that MercExchange LLC, a patent-holding company, wasn't automatically entitled to an injunction against eBay Inc. -- even though the online auctioneer was found to be infringing MercExchange's patent.
Niro also holds the dubious distinction of being the first patent troll. In 2001 Intel Corporation assistant general counsel Peter Detkin coined the term to characterize Niro and his client TechSearch LLC when Intel was defending a patent suit against them. "Troll was a derivative of, er, me," says Niro. "I'm the first." He's hardly the last: Niro and his millions have inspired waves of impersonators.
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it has complicated Niro's business model. Over the past decade, some corporations have grown tired of paying licensing fees to patent holders without products. They've started lobbying Congress to change the patent laws. The issue has become so hotly debated that in May the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in, finding that MercExchange LLC, a patent-holding company, wasn't automatically entitled to an injunction against eBay Inc. -- even though the online auctioneer was found to be infringing MercExchange's patent.
