Patent trolls are companies that don't produce anything and earn their income solely off of patent lawsuits. They usually hold broad software patents that are easy to claim people have violated.
Every year, millions of dollars are spent in patent lawsuits across the country. Most of these are from Patent Trolls. This is a lot of wasted money only going to "Trolls".
Although they also go after large corporations, Patent Trolls are especially bad for small businesses since a patent lawsuit can easily drive a small businesses under.
A big problem is that Patent Trolls don't have a clear definition. We need to make legislation that targets them, not companies that are only defending their patents.
We also need to prevent trolls from going after businesses that cannot defend themselves.