Criticism from United States Federal Government
On June 4, 2013, the White House's Office of the Press Secretary released a fact sheet on American Patent Trolls, stating:
Nevertheless, innovators continue to face challenges from Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs), companies that, in the President’s words “don’t actually produce anything themselves,” and instead develop a business model “to essentially leverage and hijack somebody else’s idea and see if they can extort some money out of them.” These entities are commonly known as “patent trolls.” Likewise, the so-called “Smartphone Patent Wars” have ballooned in recent years and today, several major companies spend more on patent litigation and defensive acquisition than on research and development.
During 2012, Rambus spent approximately 9.54 million dollars on non-defined research and development (which may include patent acquisition), and spent 13.2 million dollars on pure litigation related expenses. Because Rambus spends 72% more on litigation than research and development, it falls under the category of a patent troll according to the president of the United States