what's difficult about this is when you see an explosion of software, sloven, austin, texas, all these other places, you have code built on code, creating new ubers of the world. tens of thousands of infringements by all these companies taking place at once. the question is which among those patents are valid? that's a sifting process that u.s. patent and trademark office might not have the manpower for and has to contended with. >> there are other parts of the economy that are affected as well? >> you're starting to see these in the consumer products and the german system is starting to see this in greater numbers. but patents are the real things people have to pay attention o. >> based on your reporting, if a small company gets a letter like this from a patent troll, what should they take? >> they help you work through process. it is an expensive proposition to go to court. now keep in mind these so-called patent trolls exist because small companies that are innovating developing new products, say they need production from the googles and the microsofts of the world. that is where th