Halliburton (it would be) have patented an aspect of patent trolling: reverse engineering other people’s trade secrets using a patent, patenting the (former!) trade secret and then suing the original inventor.

There are more detailed explanations of how it works here and in the application itself.

Given the importance of patents in the modern economy, things like this convince me that there is a lot more wrong with capitalism (as it exists) than a credit crunch and a recession.

There is some hope as the recent Belski decision may invalidate business method patents. It is also a US patent and unlikely to be patentable anywhere else — but remember that the “intellectual property” lobby are very keen on making as much patentable as possible globally, have the ears of European legislators, and have America’s diplomatic and trading clout behind them.

The Belski decisions may, of course, be reversed by a higher court or overruled by legislation, again the strength of the pro-patent lobby makes this a real danger.