I'm not one of these guys, but I would think it's pretty easy to justify actually.
Say you're just some guy who has one brilliant idea in his life. You lack any kind of talent or resources to bring this idea to market but you came up with it so surely you should be able to benefit from it, right?
Trying to execute on it is a no-go because the idea is so good that some big company is going to catch on to what you're doing and devote vastly more resources than you could ever get access to to steal your idea out from under you.
So, instead, you patent it. After all, this is what patents are for. But now that you've done that, now what? It could take longer than the life of the patent for you to produce anything on this if you ever can at all.
Is it ok to sell your patent? Then you could get your FU money now without all the risks involved in actually trying to implement it (the big guys can just make something close enough that people will buy it without violating your patent). Everyone wins then because the thing will get made, but the little guy doesn't get left out. Except, of course, when a patent troll company is the buyer.
But the patent troll company, no doubt, see themselves as saving the little guy and then litigating to get enough money to save more little guys out there.
Say you're just some guy who has one brilliant idea in his life. You lack any kind of talent or resources to bring this idea to market but you came up with it so surely you should be able to benefit from it, right?
Trying to execute on it is a no-go because the idea is so good that some big company is going to catch on to what you're doing and devote vastly more resources than you could ever get access to to steal your idea out from under you.
So, instead, you patent it. After all, this is what patents are for. But now that you've done that, now what? It could take longer than the life of the patent for you to produce anything on this if you ever can at all.
Is it ok to sell your patent? Then you could get your FU money now without all the risks involved in actually trying to implement it (the big guys can just make something close enough that people will buy it without violating your patent). Everyone wins then because the thing will get made, but the little guy doesn't get left out. Except, of course, when a patent troll company is the buyer.
But the patent troll company, no doubt, see themselves as saving the little guy and then litigating to get enough money to save more little guys out there.