Worse still, third parties that were not directly involved in infringement cases were not legally allowed to challenge the validity of a patent. That has now changed and Google, Stack Exchange and the USPTO have teamed up to provide a platform for collaborative discussion and prior art submission to challenge patents. Let's hope that those with the necessary knowledge get involved and start bringing down some of these patents. 

If enough bad patents can get invalidated before they come to litigation, perhaps it will reduce the incentive for filing them in the first place.