Ironically, this was more or less the original business model behind Intellectual Ventures themselves. I guess they quickly figured out that the money is on the other side.
I was rather fascinated by Myhrvold, and the IV gang a few years back. The promise of a "pure invention" company where hundreds of scientists were toiling away on big ideas, creating a true innovation market, seemed rather exciting.
This was after all the guy that founded Microsoft Research, which unlike most of MS, has produced some rather interesting and innovative tech.
The reality though is they seem to spend way more time buying up cheap patents and then sending out "an offer you can't refuse" to hundreds of companies, hoping they will invest.
Which ultimately amounts to a smart, sophisticated patent troll. A super-troll if you will :p
Furthermore they were in the habit of outsourcing the muscle to 3rd parties that do most of the dirty work like suing, so their reputation comes across more noble, at least on the surface of things.
It's not like they are all bad, and comprised solely of attorneys. They really did invent some stuff, like the tech behind TerraPower a traveling wave nuclear reactor.[1]
The trouble with IV is that suffers from bi-polar disorder. On the one hand they want to invent stuff, but yet suing everyone else and generally being shitty is what pays the bills.
>"Litigation is a huge failure," Myhrvold says. It's "a disastrous way of monetizing patents." (2006) [2]
Then in 2010 they filed the first lawsuits directly.
An Intellectual Ventures spokesperson added that the company expects people to use the “patent troll” term, but “this is simply our company protecting its assets.” [3]
Yep. One of the co-founders is a former lawyer who in fact coined the term "patent troll". Now they are world leader in patent trolling. "If you can't beat `em, ..."
It's great lesson in copouts. Instead of using your resources (e.g. a former Microsoft CTO's intelligence and amassed wealth) to fix a problem, you take the easy way out and exploit the broken system. What a tremendous success story.
