U.S. patent office busts one tool trolls use to bully podcasters

An infamous patent that trolls use to extract payment from podcasters is kaput.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has invalidated the key claims in what came to be known as the “podcasting patent.” That decision “significantly curtails the ability of a patent troll to threaten podcasters big and small,” the EFF said: