I recognize my position is far from airtight, but I'm honestly way, way less bothered by the fact that companies like Cloudflare have a large patent portfolio simply because they actually build useful stuff related to their patents.
There is a robust debate to be had on the validity of obvious or generic software patents that only questionably constitute legitimate "invention", but that's almost entirely separate from the problem of the bottom feeding pond scum that collect patents for no other reason than to attempt to enrich themselves via parasitic extraction from people who had similar ideas but actually used them to create something useful. The former might be trying to get exclusivity from something that anyone could have come up with, but at least their idea is useful to someone. The latter brings nothing of value to anyone except maybe themselves, and arguably negative value to everyone else.
The real danger is if Cloudflare is threatened and on life support - does their culture maintain or what if it changes hands or fails completely and it's patent portfolio is acquired by litigious trolls.
As happened to Caspian Networks in the current case.
There is no resolution to the troll problem if you just keep playing the same game. So I’m not sure why we congratulate companies for “taking down trolls” when their own patent portfolio will (just as likely as not) add to the troll problem of the future.
Would Project Jengo pay me if I could show prior art for CNAAME flattening? No, because it’s their patent.
There is a robust debate to be had on the validity of obvious or generic software patents that only questionably constitute legitimate "invention", but that's almost entirely separate from the problem of the bottom feeding pond scum that collect patents for no other reason than to attempt to enrich themselves via parasitic extraction from people who had similar ideas but actually used them to create something useful. The former might be trying to get exclusivity from something that anyone could have come up with, but at least their idea is useful to someone. The latter brings nothing of value to anyone except maybe themselves, and arguably negative value to everyone else.