[reitzensteinm]

If your patent were granted, you'd still retroactively be covered from the date of filing. Go back and sue the copycats.

Your "real world" solution does nothing. Patent trolls are rapidly becoming the worst part of the current system. They have no assets, and a handful of patents.

What penalties, exactly, can you impose on a shell company with no assets?

gsb's proposed solution may not be perfect, but it's clearly superior to the mess we have now.