Ugh. Why do the courts still allow this crap?
Because that is the whole point of the patent system. I develop an idea well enough to explain its implementation to one skilled in the art. I patent it to protect it while I am building it.
A patent should only be valid if they can produce a working demonstration instead of vague ideas on paper.
That would eliminate the primary benefit of getting a patent. It would require me to keep my development completely secret until I finished the implementation. That would make it impossible to work with outside suppliers, contract manufacturers, engineering consultants,
etc. Without this protection, small companies and start ups would be at a huge disadvantage.
Non-practicing entities holding patents.
I've got a great idea for an invention, but can't work out the little details to get it to work in practice. I'll sue the pants off anyone who can.
Sorry, while there are some incorrectly granted patents, and there are certainly some abusive entities, there are many NPEs that bought their patents from the people that actually developed the products and used the sale of the patent to help fund the company (current or future development). Sometimes they maintain a license in a particular space, sometimes they do not depending on what happened to the company.
