This one falls under a different level of troll. That very early date is very important here. There was no prior art patented at the time he had this patent filed. There was prior art, but mostly that would not have been publicly available.
He may have been a troll. but I believe him to be a sincere troll. He really was the first to patent this stuff. If the current laws about first-to-file had been in effect back then, these patents would have been upheld. Others did come up with the same idea, just the same as others came up with the telephone. More to the point, others came up with other concepts and ways of accessing the same sort of behavior, so it is not like the technology issues converged on a single solution. I do not think it was a good patent, but given the level of tech development and prior art, it is completely understandable that this was awarded in the first place. This was all new to the patent office and to the people developing apps.
