According to Wikipedia, Wikipedia, "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit" and "the largest reference website on the Internet", is "written collaboratively by people from all around the world".  For some reason, unlike a House of Representatives subcommittee, Wikipedia has had no problem defining the in vogue term Patent Troll.

A House of Representatives subcommittee, seeking to reduce legal claims by owners of illegitimate patents, heard Thursday that it's difficult to define just what is a bogus patent claim.  The goal of Thursday's hearing, said subcommittee Chairman Lamar Smith, was to define so-called patent trolls, which some patent-reform advocates say are those who own patents solely for the purpose of collecting license fees or suing alleged infringers.

Computerworld.com also quoted Chuck Fish, Time Warner's vice president and chief patent counsel, as stating:

The overriding problem is the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issuing bad patents, Fish said. He praised the subcommittee for looking at ways to improve the patent-issuing process.

The problem is not the USPTO.  The problem can be found in the last paragraph of the computerworld.com article.

Current patent law is also "not balanced," Fish said. "There is a harmful trend that exists toward speculation and litigation based on patents, and away from product innovation that is supported by strong intellectual property rights."

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