By Dan Slater

Myhvold, perhaps the most written-about Law Blog subject who doesn't own a law degree, is the former chief technology officer for Microsoft who's quietly amassed a trove of 20,000-plus patents and patent applications. His firm, Intellectual Ventures, is using its clout to press tech giants into costly patent-licensing deals -- making it, in other words, one of the world's largest patent trolls.

Now, the Patently-O blog tells us that, in 2007, Halliburton filed for patent protection claiming a method of "patent acquisition and assertion by a (non-inventor) first party against a second party." Patently-O writes: "It looks like the company wants to be able to sue non-inventing entities who try to patent and assert technology against a company who has been using the technology as a trade secret."

To continue reading the rest of this interesting article from the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog, click here.