单选题 Deep-fried beer may sound scrumptious, but is it patentable? Mark Zable, an inventive Texan, thinks it is. To protect his novel production process, which involves encasing the alcohol in batter and dunking it in a fryer, he recently applied for a patent. He wants to profit if others exploit his beery brainwave. Without patents to protect their creations, inventors would have little incentive to invent. But some Americans fret that patent protection has grown too strong. The system breeds so many lawsuits, they worry, that it throttles the innovation it is supposed to promote.
Consider a suit filed on August 27th by Interval Licensing, a firm owned by Paul Allen, a cofounder of Microsoft. It targets everyone who is anyone in Silicon Valley, including Google, Apple, eBay, Yahoo! and Facebook. (But not Microsoft. ) It involves four patents covering inventions that improve an internet user's online experience, such as suggestions for further reading related to a news article and pop-up features that display share prices. Interval claims these were pioneered at Mr. Allen's now defunct Silicon Valley research laboratory and then patented between 2000 and 2004. It accuses each of its targets of violating one or more of the patents.
Their response has been swift. Facebook called the suit "completely without merit" while Google harrumphed about "people trying to compete in the courtroom instead of the marketplace". In private, some executives accuse Mr. Allen of behaving like a "patent troll"—a name given to firms that buy up patents solely in order to squeeze money out of companies that allegedly infringe them. Tech firms like trolls about as much as the Billy Goats Gruff did. An aggressive troll can hold up a billion-dollar product over a patent worth a fraction of that.
By that strict definition, Mr. Allen is not a troll. The suit involves advances that Interval says were made in Mr. Allen's own lab, not someone else's. But the case does have some trollish features, say Mr. Allen's critics. Why, they ask, did Interval wait so long to assert its rights? Was it tempted by the large piles of cash that so many tech firms built up during the downturn?
"Successful tech companies undoubtedly face a problem with out-of-the-blue patent suits," says Michael Jacobs of Morrison & Foerster, a law firm, who notes that the vast majority of cases end up producing formal licensing deals of some kind or other. According to PatentFreedom, a body that tracks the activity of what it calls "non-practising entities", or outfits such as Acacia Research that collect patents without intending to use the underlying technology in products, the number of court cases brought by them has risen sharply, from 109 in 2001 to 470 last year.
Efforts to address this problem through the courts have so far failed. Legislation designed to improve matters is still stuck in Congress. So companies are looking for other ways to protect themselves. RPX, a firm that specialises in "defensive buying" of potentially problematic tech patents, has seen its client base more than double this year to almost 60 companies, including Dell and HewlettPackard. The firm licenses its entire portfolio of 1,500 or so patents and rights to its members in return for an annual fee based on their operating income. John Amster, RPX's boss, says that although the firm can't eliminate patent risk, it offers a cost-effective way to reduce it. That is worth celebrating—perhaps with a deep-fried beer.

单选题 In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by ______.
A. explaining a phenomenon B. making a comparison
C. posing a contrast D. the example of Mark Zable

单选题 From the text, why did some executives call Mr. Allen a "patent troll"?
A. Because four patents involved in the suit were patented by Interval Licensing.
B. Because the advances involved in the suit were made in Mr. Allen's own lab.
C. Because he wants to make profits when others exploit his patents.
D. Because the Interval waited so long to assert its rights.

单选题 Which of the following is true of the text?
A. The system of patent protection promotes innovation.
B. Mr. Allen's Silicon Valley research lab still exists.
C. The author believes Interval Licensing's suit have some trollish features.
D. RPX has come up with an efficient way to reduce patent risk.

单选题 What is the author's attitude towards patent protection?
A. Supportive. B. Skeptical. C. Impartial. D. Biased.

单选题 Which of the following would be the best title?
A. Does the Patent Protection Work Well?
B. Enhance the Patent Protection
C. Please Pay for the Use of the Patent
D. The Fierce Patent Competition in Internet Companies