The problem of excessive patent protection is at present best illustrated by the software industry. Some patent protection provides an inventor with more insulation from competition than he needed to have. For example, Apple's design patent, titled, "Display screen or portion thereof with animated graphical user interface" gives Apple the exclusive rights to the page turn in an e-reader application. This, along with several other patents that Apple has acquired in the last few years, doesn't seem like a truly unique idea. Such patents only encourage patent trolls that seek excessively broad patents to pursue either a large tech company for a substantial payment or choose thousands of small tech companies as their prey, seeking smaller “license” payments. In any case, this kind of patents in software industry seem to hamper rather than encourage innovation.
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