How do you stop patent trolls? This algorithm just might do the trick

Patent trolls are a big enough problem that they've attracted the attention of the White House, but there's little consensus on how to stop them. A new tool from artist and engineer Alexander Reben looks to algorithms for help. Patent trolls are companies that buy up patents with the primary goal of pursuing infringement claims in court, while doing little or no technology development of their own. The practice has been a particularly big problem in the world of software, but Reben -- a graduate of the MIT Media Lab -- has developed a system he thinks could help. Tapping the concept of prior art -- which is simply evidence that an invention is not original, putting a damper on its patentability -- Reben's All Prior Art project mines text from the entire public database of U.S.-issued and published patents.