[javajosh]

Patent trolls make money by doing (very) lose pattern matching between what you do and the patent they hold, and then they demand an amount that they expect you to compare to the legal costs of arguing your point rather than the utility of the idea. It is a "gotcha" business model that is rightly reviled; the victims don't "choose" to use a patent, but rather the assertion of use is used as leverage by Myrvohld's company, and is expensive to defend regardless of merit. Therefore it is in their interest to assert every patent against every entity with any assets to take.

It is very unfortunate that the justice system is so broken as to make this a viable business model. There are cases of stealing, but there are far more cases of businesses doing normal things and receiving claims out-of-the-blue that they have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to defend.