Pennsylvania's Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane has called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate so-called “patent trolls.” Patent trolls are companies that acquire broadly worded patents and bring lawsuits, often frivolous, to legitimate business for patent infringement.

According to the Pittsburgh Business Times, a Boston University study estimated a whopping $29 billion tally on patent-trolling cases in 2011. The firms typically own one or more patents, but do not use them in manufacturing, marketing or selling products or services. Instead, they seek revenue from licensing the patent to others or through litigation and settlements after filing suit against firms they alleged infringed on their patents.

Kane, who is a member of the National Association of Attorneys General Working Group on Patent Trolls, has joined 42 other Attorneys General to fight the practice. In a letter signed by Kane, the Attorneys General said “through the issuance of numerous demand letters to their targets (often consumers, non-profits, and small businesses having little, if anything, to do with the underlying patent), [patent trolls] commonly demand license fees or settlements accompanied by the threat of costly litigation if the target does not ' pay up.' These [victims] usually possess little knowledge of patent law and are intimidated by demand letters.”