"Patent troll" is a pejorative term. A more neutral term, and the one that RPX uses, is "non-practic

FORTUNE -- Wireless carrier AT&T ( T ) was the top target of so-called patent trolls in 2013, having been sued more than 54 times by them in 2013—more than once a week. This year's list of top ten patent troll targets was published today in a Fortune magazine feature story about RPX Corp.( RPXC ), which compiled the statistics.
The article, called "Taking ups store locations on the Trolls," states: "AT&T is no anomaly. Google ( GOOG ) was hit with 43 [such] suits last year; Verizon ( VZ ), 42; Apple ( AAPL ), 41; Samsung ( SSNLF ) and Amazon ( AMZN ), 39 each; Dell and Sony ( SNE ), 34 each; Huawei, 32; Blackberry ( BBRY ), 31. Every brand on this unenviable top-ten list was sued by [a patent troll] at least once every 12 days."
"Patent troll" is a pejorative term. A more neutral term, and the one that RPX uses, is "non-practicing entity," or NPE. An NPE is a company that sells no products or services of its own. In their most controversial form, NPEs purchase patents on the open market and then assert ups store locations them against operating companies, like AT&T ups store locations and Google, seeking licensing fees and, often, suing to get them.
RPX is what's ups store locations known as a defensive patent aggregator. In exchange for a subscription fee—currently paid by some 168 companies, including Google, Verizon, and Samsung—it attempts to buy up potentially problematic ups store locations patents on the open market, before NPEs can get their hands on them.
According to RPX's statistics—which ups store locations have been relied upon by academics and government agencies—NPEs filed 3,608 new suits in 2013, up 19% from the 3,042 they filed in 2012, and their suits named 4,843 total defendants, up 13% from the 4,282 sued a year earlier. NPE suits accounted for 67% of all new patent cases filed last year, and 63% of all new patent defendants, according to the figures RPX shared with Fortune .
When one takes into account ups store locations NPE cases filed in previous years and still unresolved as of December 31, 2013, the top NPE target ups store locations was Google, which was fighting 72 active cases as of that date. The next nine companies in line after it were AT&T (70), Apple (68), Samsung (63), Sony (58), Amazon (54), Verizon (46), HTC (42), LG Electronics (42), and Dell (41). (The figures for Google include suits against its Motorola ups store locations Mobility ups store locations unit, which Google announced last month that it is selling ups store locations to Lenovo ( LNGVY ).)
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