[unishark]

> The saddest part of the idea of "trolling" as a "business" is that it has spread into other areas, outside IT.

I'd say the business idea was created by the govt. Finding new ways to profit via exploiting the laws will always happen sooner or later if they exist.

Hardware and software are perhaps unusual because the patent office has such a divergent idea of what is and novel and obvious to experts versus reality, presumably because computer technology moves so fast.