A couple of correspondents took me to task over my rant about the BlackBerry's patent problems. It's an issue made timely again by eBay's announcement this week that the Supreme Court will hear its appeal of a patent infringement suit it lost in 2003.

I used the term "patent trolls" to describe companies that file or buy up patents to use only as blackjacks against legitimate businesses in predatory lawsuits. (Did I get enough loaded words into that sentence to make my feelings clear?). Steven Wren and Ronald J. Riley responded from the perspective of small inventors being relentlessly deprived of their just due by large corporations that make patent infringement integral to their business model.

Wren wrote: "All this talk of 'patent trolls' is then but a red herring, fabricated by large multinationals as a diversion away from the real issue...that they have no valid defense against charges they are using other parties' technologies without permission. The objective of these large firms is not to fix the patent system, but to destroy it. Patents are a threat against their market dominance. They would rather use their size alone to secure their market position. Patents jeopardize that. For example, the proposed change to eliminate the use of injunctions would only further encourage blatant infringement."

Wren referred me to the Professional Inventors Alliance, but I didn't have to go there. It came to me, in the person of Riley, its president, who wrote, "Of course all you are doing is parroting the propaganda of the big business predators who have a long line of rationalizations for why they should get away with theft of other peoples property. They also have hoards of attorneys who help with such rationalizations. Blackberry flat out stole others property and they deserve to be shut down. I would hope that in the future your coverage of these issues become more thorough and balanced. The real victims are America's innovators who are being destroyed by predatory companies and the people whom they would have employed as they build their business."

Dear Mr. Riley,

Cool your jets. Sticks and stones, etc. If by "more thorough and balanced" you mean I should agree with you, well, surprise, I do agree with you. I think inventors should be entitled to profit from their innovations that produce real economic benefit. But that doesn't mean there's no such thing as a patent troll, and I think you do yourself and others like you a disservice when you adopt a strident position that allies you with abusers of the patent system.

I find it hard to believe that America's innovators are being destroyed by predatory companies. In fact, Steven Wren in his note says, " Based on court decisions in the last few years patents win about half the time." That sounds pretty balanced to me.

On the other hand, I don't find it at all hard to believe that there are predatory companies. Research in Motion, the company that makes the BlackBerry may well be one of them. It's reputation for lawsuit abuse is none too savory.

There is, I'm sure, abuse on both sides. My problem is, I'm in the middle -- we all are. If patent trolls blackmail companies like eBay with lawsuits, I wind up paying more for those companies' goods and services. If big companies use patent claims to keep competitors from providing innovative goods and services, I'm hurt the same way.

My major concern is that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has adopted policies that make this abuse inevitable. By issuing patents for computer software and "business processes," whatever those are, the USPTO has become the accomplice of the bad guys. But times and technology change, you may argue. True enough, so maybe the playing field needs to be re-leveled. If we're stuck with software patents on the one hand, then maybe it's time to give up injunctive relief on the other hand. How's that for balanced?

My beef isn't with you and other individual inventors. My beef is with those individuals and corporations who are gaming the patent system, and the lawyers and most of all the USPTO that are making the mess worse. My solution would be radical: Admit the USPTO made a big boo-boo and declare all software and business-process patents invalid. How would you feel about that?