This book provides a global understanding of the patent assertion entity (patent troll) phenomenon. It explores the economics and law of patent assertion entities and their impact on competition, describing how patent and antitrust laws interact to address the issue across jurisdictions in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Patent assertion entities (commonly known as 'patent trolls') hurt competition and innovation. This book, the first to analyze the most salient issues related to patent assertion entities around the world, integrates economic theory with economic and legal reality to examine how the entities function and their impact on competition. It also offers legal and policy solutions that might be used to combat them. Edited by D. Daniel Sokol, the volume collects chapters from an array of leading scholars who describe patent assertion entities in the United States, Europe, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and China, while offering empirical accounts of the entities' economic consequences and their use of litigation as a means of legal extortion against many of the most innovative companies in the world, from startups to multinationals. It should be read by anyone interested in how patent assertion entities operate and how they might be stopped.