Word.ws English Dictionary

patent trolls

patent trolls is the plural of patent troll.

Meaning of patent troll

Noun

patent troll (plural patent trolls)

  1. (derogatory, informal) A company, person, etc., that owns and enforces patents in an aggressive and opportunistic manner, often with no intention of producing, marketing, or promoting the subjects of the patents.
    • On one hand, the new law may intend to enhance the application of new technologies and discourage patent trolls. On the other hand, the new law attempts to further bring the Patent Law in line with the international treaties and laws in other areas (e.g., antimonopoly law).1990, William P. Streng, Allen D. Wilcox, editors, Doing Business in China: (People’s Republic of China), volume 2, New York, N.Y.: Matthew Bender, →ISBN, page 278

Questions about patent trolls

What is patent trolls the plural of?
Patent trolls is the plural of patent troll.

Words near patent trolls in the dictionary

  1. patent pools
  2. patent thicket
  3. patent thickets
  4. patent troll
  5. patent trolling
  6. patent trolls
  7. patentabilities
  8. patentability
  9. patentable
  10. patentably
  11. patentcy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: patent trolls (page history and authors); patent troll (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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