Intellectual Ventures
Intellectual Ventures (IV) is a patent troll. They apply for and buy patents, and bring product developers to court for royalties. According to Dennis Crouch in late 2012, Intellectual Ventures "may now be the largest worldwide patent holder".[1]
According to The Economist, in 2009 Intellectual Ventures applied for about 450 patents for its own inventions and they are among world's top 50 patent filers. It was also reported they have raised over $5 billion to buy up thousands of patents.[2]
Intellectual Ventures was co-founded by Nathan Myhrvold, who previously worked as CTO of Microsoft.[3] Even lawyers who like software patents call IV a troll.[4]
Contents
Selling patents to other trolls
As well as launching their own lawsuits, Intellectual Ventures also sells patents to other trolls, such as the sales of:
- US5,251,294 to Webvention LLC[5][6]
- US7,730,132, US7,822,813, and US7,831,663 to Pragmatus AV.[7]
- US5771354 to Oasis research.[8] In August 2010, Oasis research filed suit against nineteen companies over this patent.[9]
- The patents used by Lodsys.[10]
A co-founder of IV explained: "We sell for some amount of money up front, and we get some percentage of the royalty stream down the road that is generated from these assets."[11]
Related pages on ESP Wiki
- Patent trolls
- Pragmatus AV v. YouTube, Facebook, etc. (2010, USA)
- Similar organisations: Blackboard inc., Acacia Research Corporation
External links
- When Patents Attack, 22 July 2011, NPR Planet Money
- FFII's news about the launch of Intellectual Ventures, FFII
- Intellectual Ventures, Wikipedia
- Ideas Are Everywhere... So Why Do We Limit Them?, 7 May 2008, techdirt
- Ubuntu: Microsoft is Patent Pal, June 2007, PC World
- Nathan Myhrvold on patent mongers and business, 11 July 2007, itworld
- BoycottNovell's page on Intellectual Ventures
2010 litigation and licensing
- Turning Patents Into ‘Invention Capital’, 2010, New York Times
- That article was a follow-on from IV's blog The Big Idea: Funding Eureka!
- For a rebutal, see Software patents are the problem not the answer, 19 Feb 2010, Brad Burnham
- Intellectual Ventures Launches Massive Litigation Across 3 Industries, 8 Dec 2010, 271 Patent Blog
- Intellectual Ventures Becomes Patent Troll Public Enemy #1, 9 Dec 2010, IPWatchdog
- Intellectual Ventures Takes First Overt Legal Actions to Enforce its Mammoth Patent Portfolio, 8 Dec 2010, Patently-O
- Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures Using Over 1,000 Shell Companies To Hide Patent Shakedown, 17 Feb 2010, techdirt
- HTC, Samsung deal with patent firm to steel vs. Apple, more, 23 Nov 2010, Electronista
References
- ↑ http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2012/09/intellectual-ventures.html
- ↑ http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15570585
- ↑ http://paidcontent.org/article/419-myhrvold-connected-firm-targets-youtube-facebook-linkedin-over-patents/
- ↑ "Intellectual Ventures Becomes Patent Troll Public Enemy #1". http://ipwatchdog.com/2010/12/09/intellectual-ventures-becomes-patent-troll-public-enemy-1/id=13711/.
- ↑ http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202472798134
- ↑ http://news.priorsmart.com/webvention-v-abercrombie-fitch-lX5/
- ↑ http://paidcontent.org/article/419-myhrvold-connected-firm-targets-youtube-facebook-linkedin-over-patents/
- ↑ http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/26/138576167/when-patents-attack
- ↑ http://news.priorsmart.com/oasis-research-v-adrive-l35R/
- ↑ http://www.lodsys.com/1/post/2011/05/q-what-is-dan-abelows-involvement-is-intellectual-ventures-behind-lodsys-or-controlling-lodsys-in-some-way.html
- ↑ http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/26/138576167/when-patents-attack
