Thesis (Ph. D.)--Åbo akademi, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 286-300).

Patent trolls have changed the innovation and patent policy landscape. This thesis is an empirical event study that focuses on two landmark cases of patent troll litigation, RIM v. NTP and eBay v. Mercexchange, to determine whether pro-troll litigation outcomes significantly impact the market values of the firms in the high-tech industries they target. I find that the Supreme Court ruling in eBay v. Mercexchange did seem to significantly impact a proportion of firms in the market. The decisive factors in distinguishing affected vs. unaffected firms include a firm's R&D to Sales ratio, market value, and NAICS code specification.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Åbo akademi, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 286-300).

Within recent years, there has been a significant increase in popular commentary on internet trolls and what they mean for online interactions. Significant attention is often paid to framing trolls as individual, pathological, and atypical. While there is much one-sided dialogue occurring in the media, however, the literature on internet trolling remains scarce. This exploratory study contributes to the developing literature by addressing internet trolls directly. Drawing on interviews with a self-identified troll and content analysis, this thesis aims to understand how trolls operate, interact, and make meaning while highlighting the role of identity and emotions. This study finds that internet trolls are highly organized and social, in direct contradiction to the prevailing media narrative.

Thesis advisor: Julie Mortimer / Non-practicing entities (NPEs) – firms that do not produce goods or services but license to and sue other companies with portfolios of patents – have drastically increased patent infringement litigation since 2006. Over the same period, the USPTO has granted an increasing amount of patents, indicating that American innovation has strengthened by one measure. This paper finds fault with equating patents granted to innovation and develops a new metric of innovation – the ratio of a firm’s intangible to total assets. Through empirical analysis this study concludes that lawsuits initiated by NPEs between 2006 and 2011 do not affect the rate of American innovation. However, this study also finds that NPEs inflict at least a $567 million innovation cost to the top twenty-five most litigated against firms in the United States. This cost represents money that could be allocated towards research and development or investment, but it is not a dead-weight loss – it is the cost associated with firms’ growth measured in inflation-adjusted total assets. Ultimately, this study highlights the need for continued research into the impact of NPEs on the American economy but provides empirical evidence that the patent troll classification is unwarranted. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies Honors Program. / Discipline: Economics Honors Program. / Discipline: International Studies.

Ethnographic in approach, this dissertation examines trolling, an online subculture devoted to meme creation and social disruption. Rather than framing trolling behaviors as fundamentally aberrant, I argue that trolls are agents of cultural digestion; they scour the landscape, repurpose the most exploitable material, then shove the resulting monstrosities into the faces of an unsuspecting populace. Within the political and social context of the United States, the region to which I have restricted my focus, I argue that trolls on 4chan/b/ and Facebook perform a grotesque pantomime of a number of pervasive cultural logics, including masculine domination and white privilege. Additionally, I argue that the rhetorical and behavioral tactics used by trolls, including sensationalism, spectacle, and emotional exploitation, are homologous to tactics routinely deployed by American corporate media outlets. In short, trolling operates within existing systems, not in contrast to them, immediately complicating knee-jerk condemnations of trolling behaviors. / 10000-01-01

Les trolls de brevets ont connu un développement économique et médiatique très important depuis le début des années 2000. Ce modèle économique consiste à acquérir et valoriser des brevets d'invention de manière agressive en exploitant les faiblesses du système de brevets. Les revenus des trolls proviennent exclusivement des accords de licences conclus avec les entreprises fabricantes ou des dommages et intérêts obtenus à l’issu d’actions en contrefaçon. L’étude des trolls implique une analyse juridique, statistique et économique de leurs pratiques afin de pouvoir déterminer la réalité de ces modèles économiques et envisager une réponse à ces comportements. De plus, une approche de droit comparé est nécessaire car les disparités entre les règles de droit américaines et européennes permettent sont à l'origine des différences de situations observées entre les deux continents.La première partie est consacrée à la cinématique des trolls de brevets, détaillant les différentes stratégies et diversifications des pratiques au cours des quinze dernières années. On constate alors la nécessité de dépasser l’opposition manichéenne classique entre trolls des brevets et entreprises fabricantes. La réalité est plus complexe, les entreprises fabricantes et certaines entités publiques étant désormais fortement impliquées dans des stratégies similaires.La seconde partie est consacrée à la dynamique des trolls avec l'étude des conditions de développement, qui permettent de comprendre pourquoi cette pratique n’est pas présente sur le territoire européen dans les mêmes proportions. L’analyse de ces comportements face aux fonctions du droit de brevet est ensuite nécessaire pour caractériser l’abus constitué par ces stratégies. Enfin, l’encadrement de ces pratiques est étudié à travers les défenses disponibles pour les entreprises victimes de ces stratégies, tant en droit positif qu’en droit prospectif. Ces défenses sont appelées à traiter les conséquences et non les causes des trolls de brevets, il est donc nécessaire d’envisager le développement du marché secondaire des brevets, car ses faiblesses sont en partie responsables de l’avènement des trolls. Ainsi, un meilleur encadrement de ce marché pourrait permettre de développer les échanges de brevets et réduire les possibilités d’abus autorisées par le système des brevets aujourd’hui. / The economic development and media coverage of patent trolls has tremendously increased since 2000. This business model consists in acquiring and aggressively monetizing patents through the exploitation of the patent system failures. Patent trolls generate revenues from licensing agreements with manufacturing entities and damages obtained by court decision. The conduct of a legal, economic and statistical study is necessary in order to determine the reality of these business models and to suggest a response to these behaviors. A comparative law approach is necessary as the differences between the american and european law is the source of factual disparities observed between these two continents.The first part is dedicated to the patent trolls kinematics through the study of the various business models and their diversification over the past 15 years. It reveals the need to overcome the classical opposition between trolls and manufacturing companies as these companies and even some public funded structures are now developing similar strategies.The second part study the mechanic of patent trolls through their conditions of development, which helps to understand why trolls are not operating in Europe through the same proportions. The assessment of an abuse of the patent system is then conducted with the study of these behaviors through the lens of the patent function. Furthermore, the actual and future legal responses offered to companies facing abusive infringement claims are studied. However these defenses are meant to treat the consequences of abusive behavior and not their causes, it is therefore necessary to study the development of the secondary patent market, since some of its weakness are partially responsible for the development of patent trolls. We suggest that the enhancement of some elements of the secondary patent market could help foster patent exchange and reduce the possibility of abusing the patent system.

No description available.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur stor erfarenhet svenska studenter har av, och hur stor rädsla de har för, nättroll. Ett annat syfte var att undersöka om erfarenheten har ett samband med deras eventuella rädsla för nättroll. Studien ämnar även undersöka vad svenska studenter har för definition av nättroll. Datainsamlingen utgjordes av en elektronisk enkät bestående av en självkonstruerad Likertskala (Troll-Likert) som distribuerades via webbplattformen survey & report. Skalan har aldrig tidigare använts i annat forskningssyfte. Deltagarantalet var 93 studenter. För att undersöka och analysera resultatet användes såväl kvantitativ som kvalitativ metod. Till den kvantitativa delen användes Spearmans rangkorrelationskoefficient och en enkel regressionsanalys. I fråga om den kvalitativa delen användes tematisk analys enligt Braun och Clarke (2006). Resultatet av studien visade att studenterna både hade en hög erfarenhet och rädsla för nättroll. Regressionsanalysen resulterade i ett värde på r2= 0,120. Spearmans resultat visade på en signifikant korrelation mellan rädsla och erfarenhet och regressionslinjen visade att studenternas rädsla kan till 12% förklaras av deras erfarenhet. Den tematiska analysen resulterade i ett tema som sammanfattar respondenternas definitioner av nättroll: personer som provocerar fram reaktioner för nöjes skull. / The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Swedish students have experience of, and / or fear of, online trolls. Also, if there was a connection between them two. The study also intended to investigate what definition of online trolls Swedish students had. The data collection was made up of an electronic questionnaire consisting of a self-designed Likert scale (Troll-Likert) distributed via the web survey & report. The questionnaire has never been used for any other research purposes. The number of participants was 93 students. To investigate the results both a quantitative and a qualitative method were used. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and a regression analysis were used as in the quantitative method and a thematic analysis according to Braun and Clarke (2006) was used in the qualitative method. The study showed that the students both had a high experience and fear of online trolls. The regression analysis resulted in a value of r2 = 0.120. Spearman's results showed a significant correlation between fear and experience and the regression line showed that the students' fear can be explained to 12% by their experience. The thematic analysis resulted in one theme which summarizes the respondents' definitions of online trolls: people who provoke reactions for pleasure

This paper explores the emic use of ”Internet trolls" and trolling behaviour in one specific Internet community. The findings are compared with, and put in relations to the conventional definition of Internet-trolls as individuals who deliberately, typically anonymously, antagonize other users of online common spaces. A forum dealing with matters of relationship issues in the Swedish online community Message Board of Familjeliv.se, was the subject of field-work that provided the basic empirical material for the research; three comparable threads on the subject of infidelity. These could all be said to contain suspected trolling, and such suspicions were also ascribed participants throughout the discussions. The analysis was undertaken mainly in terms of quality of narrative, performance and interaction. A comparative method and a genre analysis out of a holistic and functionalistic perspective is used to shed some light on how forum participants organize themselves and steer narratives towards desired outcomes. Author performances, both initially and throughout conversational threads, are explored through holistic analysis. It is concluded that a broad emic view on trolls and trolling behaviour exists within the Internet community, and that the understanding of trolls can differ between users, forums and within conversational threads. The results are put in relations to and are compared to how trolls are described in Swedish folklore tradition. Parallels are also drawn to fear of and belief in evil. The analytical concepts ”actual” and ”virtual” worlds, as defined by the anthropologist Tom Boellstorff (2008:18f), are used in this analysis to illustrate how trolling behaviour can be perceived when borders between differing worldviews are crossed and/or when the majority of the active participants of a thread consider a statement incompatible with the dominating interpretation of a given narrative.