http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-kahin/the-patent-bubble-still-g_b_129232.html
"[…] a patent may look like an asset in your hands, but it is a liability, present or potential, to everybody else. "
"What is the real value of those patents? Even big boys with portfolios can't afford to find out. As Myrhvold says: "Now suppose we hypothetically approach somebody or they approach us, and we have 1,000 patents in their area. I say, I can't afford to sue you on all of these, and you can't afford to defend on all these." So nobody can afford to find out, but it's somewhere between modest value in the portfolio of a big producer and maybe 20 times as much in the hands of a licensing specialist[…]"
"But when will the bubble burst and how? What happens when some big, precarious IT firm fails (I won't be specific either), flooding the market with tens of thousands of hitherto "undervalued" patents? Who will be left holding the bag?
One possibility is that the Supreme Court will revisit the issue of patentable subject matter and make it clear that the Federal Circuit's permissive policies were not grounded on Supreme Court precedent. That would deflate much but by no means all of the speculation, and patent holders and attorneys would undoubtedly beseech Congress for rescue.
The other possibility is that the bubble is not in speculative instruments but in the tech sector: That all those going businesses with real customers are overvalued. Why? Because they have undervalued liabilities owed to outsiders armed with powerful legal instruments and seductive, irresistible incentives for attracting capital."
