Well, I know you Americans love taxes, and all this court time has to be paid by the public somehow... These trolls should be sued by you for wasting public resources.

I find it incredible that an "idea" is allowed to be patented to begin with.

I'm pretty sure that an 'idea' as such can't be patented, and that there has to be a detailed description of the application of the idea, with drawings and/or detailed descriptions of how it's all supposed to work.

 

This has generally been effective with mechanical patents, but software is a different matter since there is an unquantifiable multitude of algorithms that can produce a given end result.

 

James Watt had to develop his own trick (sun & planet gear) for converting reciprocating motion into rotary motion on his steam engine, as the obvious solution, the crank, already had a patent held on it. The mere idea of conversion of one type of motion to another couldn't (then or now) be patented, though. Those are two ways of achieving that desired result, and there aren't likely to be many others (possibly none). With software, alternative solutions are numerous if patents depend upon specific algorithms or code sequences. This is the space that allows patent trolls to operate in.

I find it incredible that an "idea" is allowed to be patented to begin with

 

Gebnerally they can't be. Copyright protect expression and patents protect inventions, but neither protect ideas