Not going to do a full dissertation on the topic, but the term "patent troll" is being thrown around quite a bit too broadly these days. For many, ANY non-practicing entity is, by their definition, a patent troll.
We think this is ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with an entity simply being in the patent business. Whether or not some entity is a "patent troll" should be determined by their behavior, not simply by their chosen business model.
What brings this to mind? A patent application published by USPTO on July 25th, filed by Intellectual Ventures. If you're in the business of inventing things and filing patent applications, you are not a patent troll.
Why did I happen to notice? Well, the application has some very prominent names listed as inventors, including Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold. Those are names that stand out.
The patent, application 20130188887, is for an invention that generates video from text, which is intended to aid people with reading or learning disabilities.