Patent trolls have hit Main Street this year and anger about their demands has bubbled up to Washington.

Today, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expected to announce that it will open an investigation into "patent trolls," a derogatory term for companies that engage in no business activities aside from suing over patents. The investigation will be announced at a conference by FTC chairwoman Edith Ramirez, according to a report this morning in The New York Times. The investigation into trolls, which the FTC calls "patent assertion entities" or PAEs, will complement other anti-troll government actions this year, like President Obama's report on patent issues and the five anti-patent-troll bills introduced so far in Congress this year.

The FTC investigation will be a so-called 6(b) study, named after the section of the FTC Act that gives the commission the authority to conduct the study. The study is not a criminal investigation, but the FTC will be able to use subpoena powers to do things that private litigants in patent cases and activist groups can't do. Mainly, they can follow the money to find out how much the trolls are making and where it's going. Patent-holding companies like Intellectual Ventures, for example, often spin off their patents into shell companies and it isn't clear how much goes back to the parent company.

Historically, these types of FTC studies can change the conversation about an issue. The FTC performed a 6(b) study on the issue of "pay for delay" drug settlements several years ago and the data has fueled its continued battle against those types of settlements in courts and in Congress ever since. Such studies were also instrumental in pushing alcoholic beverage companies to voluntarily steer their marketing away from youth. Ultimately, a 6(b) study on patent trolls could even could push the Commission towards legal action against some trolls, based on antitrust laws.

The study will not make information about individual patent-trolling companies available to the public. Instead, the FTC will aggregate the information and put it together in a report that may well serve as a key talking point for reform efforts. It could reveal some information about who really benefits from patent trolling as well as what kind of damage trolls do to the economy.

It could also show the degree to which trolling has gone "corporate," to see if the trolls—which increasingly are getting their patents from operating companies—are giving kickbacks and chunks of settlement cash to their corporate sponsors.

Recent studies have shown that around 60 percent of patent lawsuits are now filed by trolls, with such suits costing the economy $29 billion annually in direct legal costs.

According to the New York Times, it is "highly likely" that the full commission will vote to begin the investigation. The FTC usually has 5 commissioners but currently has four members, divided 2-2 between Democrats and Republicans. Concern about patent trolls has been a bipartisan issue this year.

The 6(b) study was called for by Google, Earthlink, Red Hat, and other tech companies in public comments to the FTC earlier this year. In April, two FTC directors said they favored such an investigation. The FTC's strong interest in patent trolls has been clear since December, when the agency held a workshop about PAEs.

"There is an urgent need for the FTC to put a spotlight on the egregious practices of patent trolls," former FTC director David Balto told Ars in an email this morning. Balto, who urged a 6(b) study earlier this year on behalf of his client the National Restaurant Institute, continued: "They use uncertainty and deception to exploit vulnerable small businesses, raising costs for consumers and stifling innovation. FTC 6b studies in the past have served a vital role in guiding Congress how to put a stop to deceptive conduct. It is ironic on a day that we remember Tony Soprano, that the FTC is acting to help spotlight the extortion tactics of this modern day litigation mafia."