[stonefroot]

What's really needed, in my opinion, is a search engine to track shell companies. The lawyer interviewed is shooting from the hip when he says it is "a shell game".

Without the use of shell corporations the patent trolling game becomes much more difficult. In programmer lingo, it makes it "non-trivial". Using a system of shell corporations and hiding behind them makes patent trolling much more feasible as a pure play and makes it possible to do at scale, as Intellectual Ventures does.

If we pick up the shell and reveal the cretins hiding underneath, it would have a real effect on patent trolling. I can say this with 100% certainty.

Maybe even a more profound effect than making prior art easier to locate.