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Now It Begins? Litigation Rumors Surface Over Intellectual Ventures
,----[ Quote ]
| Intellectual Ventures (IV) has insisted for a long while that its
| accumulation of patents has nothing to do with patent litigation. In fact,
| the company has prided itself on not filing any lawsuits, despite the claim
| that its patent portfolio, comprising 27,000 patents, has brought in over $1B
| in licensing revenue. Recently, IV was rumored to have struck a $120M patent
| deal with Intuit Inc., and also struck deals with companies like Cisco and
| Verizon for between $200M and $400M apiece.
`----
http://271patent.blogspot.com/2009/09/now-it-begins-litigation-rumors-surface.html
Intellectual Ventures Takes Indirect Route to Court
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| Patent-hoarding giant Intellectual Ventures has long beat the drum that it
| doesn't file lawsuits.
|
| But now Intellectual Ventures has started selling some of its 27,000 patents
| to people who aren't afraid to sue -- and in some cases IV will get a share
| of the prize. It's a scary scenario for tech companies that may end up in the
| legal crosshairs, but industry observers say it was only a matter of time.
|
| [...]
|
| It's a new phase for Intellectual Ventures, which was founded in 2001 by
| Microsoft Corp.'s top tech guys, Nathan Myhrvold and Edward Jung. At first,
| the company took investments (about $5 billion) and bought up patents (now up
| to 27,000). In more recent years, IV has been cutting licensing deals with
| big tech companies that are apparently infringing on some of IV's
| intellectual property. Intuit Inc., the financial software firm, agreed to
| pay $120 million for a license in May. Detkin says that IV has brought in
| about $1 billion in revenue this way. And he and others at IV like to point
| out that they've never once used the cudgel of a patent infringement lawsuit
| to get a deal done.
|
| With its new practice of selling off patents to third parties, litigation is
| much more likely. It's similar to the "catch and release" model used for some
| time by other patent-holding companies. That's a friendly sounding name for a
| threat that goes like this: Take a license because we're going to sell the
| patent on the open market -- and you never know what unscrupulous and
| lawsuit-prone troll is going to buy it.
`----
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202433490140&Intellectual_Ventures_Takes_Indirect_Route_to_Court
Recent:
Don't Feed the Super-Troll
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| As with all patent trolls, the danger is that the more companies accept these
| proffered licensing deals, the stronger the trolls become. I imagine we'll
| see many more such stories leaking out as Intellectual Ventures gains in
| confidence and ambition.
|
| The big problem is not only that Myhrvold's an ex-Microsoftie, but that
| Microsoft is also an investor in the company; this means that we are not
| going to see Microsoft on the receiving end of Intellectual
| Venture's âoffersâ. But there is a very real danger that at some point the
| larger supporters of open source will be.
|
| [...]
|
| Expect, then, Mr Myhrvold to emerge as public enemy number one for the free
| software community; it's just a matter of time now that the super-troll has
| awoken from its deep slumbers and started to feed on those that foolishly
| fail to defend themselves.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=14&entryid=2317
Patent Reform & Campaign Cash
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| An article in CongressDaily's AM Edition on Friday notes that Rep. Dana
| Rohrabacher, R-Calif., is an opponent of legislation intended to rework how
| patents are granted and litigated in the United States. Rohrabacher said at a
| House Science Committee hearing that the measures currently moving through
| the House and Senate have been driven by major high-tech firms that
| are "trying to destroy the patent system." The story points out that
| Rohrabacher's top 2008 campaign donor was Intellectual Ventures, a firm
| founded by Nathan Myhrvold, a former Microsoft executive who has been highly
| critical of changing the patent system. He also accepted money from
| manufacturers -- another sector that has panned portions of the legislation.
`----
http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2009/05/patent-reform-campaign-cash.php
The real patent threat: Not Microsoft
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| Hence, while the open-source world is up in arms about Microsoft's TomTom
| patent suit, it should be far more worried about news that Intellectual
| Ventures has grabbed another 500 patents through a deal with Telcordia
| Technologies, as TechFlash reports. Intellectual Ventures, arguably the
| world's largest patent troll, is set up to do nothing more than license its
| intellectual property, which it has done to the tune of hundreds of millions
| of dollars.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10172590-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Intellectual Ventures adds to patent pile with new deal
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| Intellectual Ventures is adding to its huge pile of patents. The
| Bellevue-based firm, founded by former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold, is
| today announcing a partnership with broadband company Telcordia Technologies,
| giving it access to more than 500 Telcordia patents. Intellectual Ventures
| has also pledged to fund Telcordia research and development.
`----
http://www.techflash.com/Intellectual_Ventures_40298142.html
Checking in on Nathan Myhrvold
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| I'd suggest the business be called Intellectual Vultures' ... because that is
| exactly what Nathan is bringing to the table - nothing. This business model
| stifles and prevents creative idea, and is yet another made up securities
| model that preys on other people's legitimate hard work.
|
| When he was at Microsoft, he had zero practical ideas and I see he's still
| doing the same, only this time, he's screwing the whole public. This business
| is living on the backs of other people because they don't know how to spell
| the word âinnovation'. How about coming up with an original and useful idea
| and earn it the old fashion way?
|
| Nathan should be ashamed of this practice and he should be investigated by
| the FTC for predatory business practices.
`----
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/149104.asp?source=rss
Nathan Myhrvoldâs Patent Extortion Fund Is Reaping Hundreds Of Millions of
Dollars
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| Donât blame Nathan Myhrvold for taking advantage of the culture of rampant
| patent litigation in this country. He is only doing what large companies with
| vast patent portfolios such as IBM and Microsoft do on a daily basis: use the
| threat of patent infringement litigation to strike lucrative patent licensing
| deals. Except Myhrvold, who used to be Bill Gatesâ right-hand man at
| Microsoft during the 1990s, does it through his patent-gobbling fund,
| Intellectual Ventures.
`----
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/17/nathan-myhrvolds-patent-extortion-fund-is-reaping-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars/
Invention Capitalism & the Law: Checking in on Nathan Myhrvold
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| Myhrvold told the WSJ that he acknowledges facing resistance from companies
| he targets for licenses. But his patent inventory gives him leverage to
| extract settlements without litigation. âI say, âI canât afford to sue you on
| all of these, and you canât afford to defend on all these,ââ he said.
`----
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/09/17/invention-capitalism-the-law-checking-in-on-nathan-myhrvold/
Nathan Myhrvold: Alpha patent troll?
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| Former Microsoft exec Nathan Myhrvold has been collecting patents, extracting
| fees from technology companies via his company Intellectual Ventures. Is
| Myhrvold a patent troll with tech cred?
|
| The Wall Street Journal has a long account of Myhrvoldâs patent collecting
| efforts and how he is winning multimillion dollar payments from the likes of
| Verizon and Cisco. These payments are top secret material, but Myhrvoldâs
| firm is the one reaping the rewards. Intellectual Ventures has more than
| 20,000 patents. In many respects, Myhrvold is just a patent trader. A few
| lawsuits could define him as a troll quickly though.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10069
Tech Guru Riles the Industry
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| Over the past few years, the former Microsoft Corp. executive has quietly
| amassed a trove of 20,000-plus patents and patent applications related to
| everything from lasers to computer chips. He now ranks among the world's
| largest patent-holders -- and is using that clout to press tech giants to
| sign some of the costliest patent-licensing deals ever negotiated.
`----
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122161127802345821.html
Patent startup gains high profile backing
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| John Amster, one of two former Intellectual Ventures executives that formed
| RPX, said he will not detail the company's business model or customers until
| October. However he did say RPX will acquire patents in a broad range of
| technology and e-commerce areas, especially when the patents are being
| asserted or involved in litigation.
`----
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=Y5PML15MGOPIQQSNDLPCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=210602186
Transcript: Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures
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| Nathan Myhrvold: The genesis of this idea was when I was at Microsoft. We had
| a problem with patent liability. All these people were coming to sue us or
| demand payment. And Bill (Gates) asked me to think about if there was a
| solution. This is what I came up with.
|
| WSJ: So you think that you're actually protecting companies from more
| settlements or bigger payments down the road?
`----
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122142717791833671.html
We doctor your patents, so be patent!
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| Unlike most other pure licensing companies, Intellectual Ventures hasnât
| filed patent-infringement lawsuits to help force settlements. But the group
| lobbying on behalf of tech companies in Washington, the Coalition for Patent
| Fairness â which includes several companies that have been approached for
| licensing deals by Intellectual Ventures â says it is only a matter of
| time. âSince these thousands of patents only give [Intellectual Ventures] the
| right to stop others from making products, through lawsuits, it is obvious
| what they intend to do,â the group said in a statement.
|
| [...]
|
| As with short sellers, large companies don't like plays that can shake them
| up and expose their inadequacies, and will spend large amounts to PR /
| lobby / legislate them away - and as any small player who has tried to
| enforce patent abuse by large companies knows, it's virtually impossible to
| win and ruinously expensive to fight. So in that respect, aggregation is a
| good thing. Its hard to tell from this article if its just part of the PR war
| or whether there has been a real step up in the shakedown.
`----
http://broadstuff.com/archives/1246-We-doctor-your-patents,-so-be-patent!.html
Reforming the Patent System
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| Intellectual Ventures and its ilk are arguably the single biggest risk to
| America's continued leadership in technology and innovation. As dsquared
| elegantly put it in a comment here in May, the company might do a bit of R,
| but it doesn't do any D. Instead, it acts as a brake on any company wanting
| to do substantive R&D of its own, since there's a good chance Intellectual
| Ventures will have got there first, patented the idea, and then just decided
| to sit on it until somebody dares to violate it.
`----
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2008/09/17/reforming-the-patent-system?tid=true
Microsoft and Pioneer Enter Into Patent Cross-Licensing Agreement to Foster
Mutual Innovation in Consumer Technology
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| Although the contents of the agreement, including the specific financial
| terms, are confidential, the parties indicated that Microsoft is being
| compensated by Pioneer.
`----
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/sep08/09-16PioneerPR.mspx
Acacia tops troll litigaition league
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| Acacia Technologies is the most litigious non-practising entity/troll (delete
| according to preference) in the United States. According to research done by
| PatentFreedom, which is featured in an article to be published in the next
| issue of IAM, Acacia has been involved in a total of 308 cases in the US
| courts, 239 of which have been filed since 2003. In second place is Rates
| Technology Inc, which has been involved in 130 cases â although just 38 have
| been over the last six years.
`----
http://www.iam-magazine.com/blog/Detail.aspx?g=31e01d61-2f07-488e-9e56-32a96383071e
Ideas Are Everywhere... So Why Do We Limit Them?
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| Gladwell uses this to talk up what Myhrvold is doing, suggesting that
| Intellectual Ventures is really about continuing that process, getting those
| ideas out there -- but he misses the much bigger point: if these ideas are
| the natural progression, almost guaranteed to be discovered by someone sooner
| or later, why do we give a monopoly on these ideas to a single discoverer?
| Myhrvold's whole business model is about monopolizing all of these ideas and
| charging others (who may have discovered them totally independently) to
| actually do something with them. Yet, if Gladwell's premise is correct (and
| there's plenty of evidence included in the article), then Myhrvold's efforts
| shouldn't be seen as a big deal. After all, if it wasn't Myhrvold and his
| friends doing it, others would very likely come up with the same thing sooner
| or later.
|
| This is especially highlighted in one anecdote in the article, of Myhrvold
| holding a dinner with a bunch of smart people... and an attorney. The group
| spent dinner talking about a bunch of different random ideas, with no real
| goal or purpose -- just "chewing the rag" as one participant put it. But the
| next day the attorney approached them with a typewritten description of 36
| different inventions that were potentially patentable out of the dinner. When
| a random "chewing the rag" conversation turns up 36 monopolies, something is
| wrong. Those aren't inventions that deserve a monopoly.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080507/0114581051.shtml
Related:
Who is the world's biggest patent troll?
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| In two consecutive days, The Wall Street Journal presented two different
| answers. The first is not surprising: Intellectual Ventures, the brainchild
| of ex-Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold. It's now out "to raise as much as
| $1 billion to help develop and patent inventions, many of them from
| universities in Asia."
`----
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9816163-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Playing Microsoft Patent Poker
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| This time though, while Ballmer slinks away to try to con â convince people
| that Microsoft Unified Communications somehow offers people more than what
| Cisco's VOIP (voice over IP) been offering customers for years, a patent
| attack finally launches at Linux. Specifically, IP Innovation, a subsidiary
| of Acacia Technologies Group, has filed a patent infringement claim against
| Linux distributors Novell and Red Hat.
|
| So was it just timing, or was it something more? Let's take a look at the
| players.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2201579,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616
Top Ten Patent Trolls of 2007
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| 3. Acacia. I didn't start tracking Acacia carefully until the summer. But
| still, on my blog I have reported on over two dozen lawsuits brought by
| Acacia this year, against more than 235 defendants. That's in addition to the
| over 200 lawsuits Acacia filed in previous years against hundreds and
| hundreds of defendants. And that's not including the two lawsuits (at least)
| Acacia has filed in December against 20 more defendants (yes, Acacia, I'm
| watching you). Acacia's business model, as a publicly traded company, is to
| accumulate patents and sue as many companies as possible in order to extract
| licenses. They have a market cap of over 275 million - that pays for a lot of
| lawsuits. Unlike other trolls, Acacia tends to not focus on one court in
| particular, although they have sampled the Eastern District of Texas more
| this year than in the past.
`----
http://trolltracker.blogspot.com/2007/12/top-ten-patent-trolls-of-2007.html
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