<p>It has to be one of the strangest consumer-fraud complaints ever: The attorney general of Vermont has sued a Texas lawyer for threatening to sue businesses when he had no intention of suing anybody.</p><p>The complaint against Stephenville, Texas lawyer Jay Mac Rust represents the latest backlash against trolls, those lawyers who try to use their licenses to shake down targets with threatening-sounding letters that signify nothing.</p><p>Earlier this month, a federal judge in California threw the book at Prenda, a law firm that had the clever idea of sending demand letters to people it suspected of downloading copyrighted porn movies. In a scathing ruling issued May 6, U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright ordered the attorneys at Prenda to pay $80,000 for abusing the legal system and said he was turning them over to state disciplinary authorities.</p><p>Rust may find himself in a similar pickle if he isn't careful. He didn't immediately respond to a voicemail left on his cellular phone. In its complaint, Vermont says the 1999 University of Texas Law School grad sent letters to small businesses and nonprofits deliberately selected for their likely ignorance of patent law. Rust represents MPHJ Technology Investments, a Delaware corporation that operates 40 shell companies that purportedly own patents on technology for integrating document scanners with computer networks.</p><p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2013/05/24/hard-times-for-trolls-as-vermont-sues-patent-mill-over-demand-letters/">Keep reading...</a></p>