[gumby]

I hate the typical use of NPEs but your point is correct. It’s like private equity companies: in principle quite reasonable but many people use them to extract the value of a business and leave a husk behind.

I don’t know of a way to fix these kinds of problems.

[impossiblefork]

I think the right idea is better patent examination.

If patent examination is correctly performed, then all patents will have real novelty and the people who have to license a patent haven't had anything taken away from them since the novelty means that they wouldn't have come up with the thing they have to license anyway.