To the Editor:

“Obama Orders Regulators to Root Out ‘Patent Trolls’ ” (Business Day, June 5) focuses on the fact that the number of lawsuits filed by patent trolls has soared in part because trolls can no longer file a single suit against dozens of defendants.

As you report, the trolls are “shell companies that exist merely for the purpose of asserting that they should be paid because they hold patents that are being infringed by some software or electronic process.”

It’s important to understand the larger point of President Obama’s executive actions.

The president has correctly identified software patents as the main fuel for the patent troll litigation wildfire. And he has proposed a reasonable solution: directing the Patent and Trademark Office to focus on limiting patents to what someone actually invented.

For example, why should someone who creates a particular system for distributing audio files receive a patent for every possible system for distributing audio files?