Several retail trade associations — the Food Marketing Institute, National Retail Foundation, National Restaurant Association, and the Internet Association — are working together to fund a national print and radio advertising campaign to combat trolls. The ads ask people to call their legislators and ask them to take action to prevent bad patents and stop patent trolls. And the advertisements are already working. NPR reported on the campaign late last week on All Things Considered. In the piece, Erik Lieberman of the Food Marketing Institute describes the economic harm trolls do to grocers and how some of that harm is necessarily passed on to consumers, making this not just a business issue, but a consumer issue as well. Both the ads and the NPR piece are worth your time.
In the interest of full disclosure, I work with both the Food Marketing Institute and the National Retail Foundation.