Intellectual Ventures
Encyclopedia
Intellectual Ventures is a private company notable for being one of the top-five owners of U.S. patents, as of 2011. Its business model has a focus on developing a large patent portfolio and licensing these patents to companies. Publicly, it states that a major goal is to assist small inventors against corporations. In practice, much of their revenue comes from licensing patents from other corporations and then filing lawsuits for infringement of patents. This, however, is not without controversy.
Intellectual Ventures launched a prototyping and research laboratory in 2009 called Intellectual Ventures Lab which attracted media controversy when the book SuperFreakonomics decried its efforts to reduce global climate change. Its employees are predominantly patent attorney
s, physicist
s, engineer
s and biotechnologists
.
, Edward Jung of Microsoft
, Peter Detkin
of Intel, and Gregory Gorder of Perkins Coie
, a Seattle-based law firm. They reportedly have raised over $5 billion from many large companies including Microsoft
, Intel, Sony
, Nokia
, Apple
, Google
, SAP
, Nvidia
and eBay
, plus investment firms such as Charles River Ventures. Reported statistics indicate over 30,000 purchased patents and applications and over 2000 internally-developed inventions. Licenses to patents are obtained through investment and royalties
.
of the Institute for Systems Biology
, Ed Harlow of Harvard Medical School, Danny Hillis of Applied Minds
, and Sir John Pendry
of Imperial College. The Sunday Times reported that the company applies for about 450 patents per year, in areas from vaccine research to optical computing and, as of May 2010, 91 of the applications had been approved. Internally-developed inventions include a safer nuclear reactor design (which won the MIT Technology Review Top 10 Emerging Technologies in 2009) that can use uranium waste as fuel or thorium which is plentiful and poses no proliferation risk, a mosquito targeting laser based on Strategic Defense Initiative
Star Wars
technology, and a series of computer models of infectious disease.
Their efforts to reverse or reduce the effects of global climate change by artificially recreating the conditions from the aftermath of a volcanic eruption gained media coverage following the release of the book SuperFreakonomics. Information in the fifth chapter of the book about global warming
proposes that the global climate can be regulated by geo-engineering of a stratoshield based upon patented technology from Nathan Myhrvold
's company.
The chapter has been criticized by some economists and climate science experts who say it contains numerous misleading statements and discredited arguments, including this presentation of geoengineering as a replacement for CO2 emissions reduction. Among the critics are Paul Krugman
, Brad DeLong
, The Guardian
, and The Economist
. Elizabeth Kolbert, a science writer for The New Yorker
who has written extensively on global warming, contends that "just about everything they [Levitt and Dubner] have to say on the topic is, factually speaking, wrong." In response, Levitt and Dubner have stated on their Freakonomics
blog that global warming is man-made
and an important issue. They warn against the exaggerated claims of an inevitable doomsday; instead they look to raise awareness of other, less traditional or popular, methods to tackle the potential problem of global warming.
indicated some or all of their patent portfolios were sold to the company. Investigative journalism suggests that the company makes most of its income from lawsuits and licensing of already-existing inventions, rather than from its own innovation. Intellectual Ventures has been described as a "patent troll
" by Shane Robison, CTO of Hewlett Packard and others, allegedly accumulating patents not in order to develop products around them but with the goal to pressure large companies into paying licensing fees. Recent reports indicate that Verizon and Cisco made payments of $200 million to $400 million for investment and access to the Intellectual Ventures portfolio.
On December 8, 2010, Intellectual Ventures filed its first lawsuit, accusing Check Point
, McAfee
, Symantec
, Trend Micro
, Elpida
, Hynix
, Altera
, Lattice
and Microsemi of patent infringement. The company has also been accused of hiding behind shell companies for earlier lawsuits, an accusation consistent with the findings of NPR's Planet Money
in July 2011. The episode, which also aired as "When Patents Attack" of This American Life
, was dedicated to software patents, prominently featuring Intellectual Ventures. It includes sources accusing Intellectual Ventures of pursuing a strategy encouraging mutually assured destruction, including Chris Sacca
calling Nathan Myhrvold
's argument that Intellectual Ventures is offering protection from lawsuits a "mafia
style shakedown
".
Intellectual Ventures staff are active in lobbying and testifying in court on United States patent policy. It reports its purchasing activity as of spring 2010 has sent $350 million to individual inventors and $848 million to small and medium size enterprises as well as returning "approximately $1 billion" to investors without filing any lawsuits. In March 2009 Intellectual Ventures announced expansion into China, India, Japan, Korea and Singapore to build partnerships with prominent scientists and institutions in Asia to create and market inventions.
While the company claims to assist independent inventors, one finding claimed that they have been unable to note a single case of aid they have provided to a single, independent inventor. The practice of legally prosecuting infringement of patents that are not used by the company to produce goods or services has been referred to as "patent troll
ing" by some investigative journalists and industrialists.
Intellectual Ventures launched a prototyping and research laboratory in 2009 called Intellectual Ventures Lab which attracted media controversy when the book SuperFreakonomics decried its efforts to reduce global climate change. Its employees are predominantly patent attorney
Patent attorney
A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing an opposition...
s, physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
s, engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
s and biotechnologists
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...
.
Overview
Intellectual Ventures was founded as a private partnership in 2000 by Nathan MyhrvoldNathan Myhrvold
Nathan Paul Myhrvold , formerly Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, is co-founder of Intellectual Ventures. Myhrvold, usually with coinventors, holds 17 U.S. patents assigned to Microsoft and has applied for more than 500 patents. In addition, Myhrvold and coinventors hold 115 U.S...
, Edward Jung of Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, Peter Detkin
Peter Detkin
Peter N. Detkin is a managing partner for Intellectual Ventures.He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.S.E.E. in 1982 and J.D. in 1985...
of Intel, and Gregory Gorder of Perkins Coie
Perkins Coie
Perkins Coie is an international law firm based in Seattle, Washington. It has been listed on the Fortune Magazine "100 Best Places to Work in America" for the past nine years. It is noted for its intellectual property, Labor and Employment, and Products Liability practice groups, and for its...
, a Seattle-based law firm. They reportedly have raised over $5 billion from many large companies including Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, Intel, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
, Apple
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, SAP
SAP AG
SAP AG is a German software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software...
, Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
and eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
, plus investment firms such as Charles River Ventures. Reported statistics indicate over 30,000 purchased patents and applications and over 2000 internally-developed inventions. Licenses to patents are obtained through investment and royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
.
Investment funds
The company operates three primary investment funds:- Investment Science Fund
- Invention Development Fund
- Inventional Investment Fund
Intellectual Ventures Lab
Intellectual Ventures launched a prototyping and research laboratory in 2009 called Intellectual Ventures Lab, hiring prominent scientists to perform invention including Robert Langer of MIT, Leroy HoodLeroy Hood
Leroy Hood is an American biologist. He won the 2011 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize “for automating DNA sequencing that revolutionized biomedicine and forensic science” and the 2003 Lemelson-MIT Prize for inventing "four instruments that have unlocked much of the mystery of human biology" by...
of the Institute for Systems Biology
Institute for Systems Biology
The Institute for Systems Biology is a non-profit research institution, located in Seattle, Washington, United States. Leroy Hood co-founded the Institute with Alan Aderem and Ruedi Aebersold in 2000....
, Ed Harlow of Harvard Medical School, Danny Hillis of Applied Minds
Applied Minds
Applied Minds, Llc. is a company founded in 2000 by ex-Disney Imagineers Danny Hillis and Bran Ferren that provides technology, design, R&D, and consulting services to multiple firms, including General Motors, Intel, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Herman Miller, Harris Corporation, Sony, and...
, and Sir John Pendry
John Pendry
Sir John Brian Pendry, FRS FInstP is an English theoretical physicist known for his research into refractive indexes and creation of the first practical "Invisibility Cloak"...
of Imperial College. The Sunday Times reported that the company applies for about 450 patents per year, in areas from vaccine research to optical computing and, as of May 2010, 91 of the applications had been approved. Internally-developed inventions include a safer nuclear reactor design (which won the MIT Technology Review Top 10 Emerging Technologies in 2009) that can use uranium waste as fuel or thorium which is plentiful and poses no proliferation risk, a mosquito targeting laser based on Strategic Defense Initiative
Strategic Defense Initiative
The Strategic Defense Initiative was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic...
Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
technology, and a series of computer models of infectious disease.
Their efforts to reverse or reduce the effects of global climate change by artificially recreating the conditions from the aftermath of a volcanic eruption gained media coverage following the release of the book SuperFreakonomics. Information in the fifth chapter of the book about global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
proposes that the global climate can be regulated by geo-engineering of a stratoshield based upon patented technology from Nathan Myhrvold
Nathan Myhrvold
Nathan Paul Myhrvold , formerly Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, is co-founder of Intellectual Ventures. Myhrvold, usually with coinventors, holds 17 U.S. patents assigned to Microsoft and has applied for more than 500 patents. In addition, Myhrvold and coinventors hold 115 U.S...
's company.
The chapter has been criticized by some economists and climate science experts who say it contains numerous misleading statements and discredited arguments, including this presentation of geoengineering as a replacement for CO2 emissions reduction. Among the critics are Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman
Paul Robin Krugman is an American economist, professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times...
, Brad DeLong
J. Bradford DeLong
James Bradford DeLong commonly known as Brad DeLong, is a professor of Economics and chair of the Political Economy major at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration under Lawrence...
, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, and The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
. Elizabeth Kolbert, a science writer for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
who has written extensively on global warming, contends that "just about everything they [Levitt and Dubner] have to say on the topic is, factually speaking, wrong." In response, Levitt and Dubner have stated on their Freakonomics
Freakonomics
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a 2005 non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner. The book has been described as melding pop culture with economics, but has also been described as...
blog that global warming is man-made
Anthropogenic
Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes impacts on biophysical environments, biodiversity and other resources. The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity. The term was first used in the technical sense by Russian...
and an important issue. They warn against the exaggerated claims of an inevitable doomsday; instead they look to raise awareness of other, less traditional or popular, methods to tackle the potential problem of global warming.
Controversy
Intellectual Ventures' purchased patents have largely been kept secret, though press releases with Telcordia and TransmetaTransmeta
Transmeta Corporation was a US-based corporation that licensed low power semiconductor intellectual property. Transmeta originally produced very long instruction word code morphing microprocessors, with a focus on reducing power consumption in electronic devices. It was founded in 1995 by Bob...
indicated some or all of their patent portfolios were sold to the company. Investigative journalism suggests that the company makes most of its income from lawsuits and licensing of already-existing inventions, rather than from its own innovation. Intellectual Ventures has been described as a "patent troll
Patent troll
Patent troll is a pejorative but questioned term used for a person or company who is a non-practicing inventor, and buys and enforces patents against one or more alleged infringers in a manner considered by the target or observers as unduly aggressive or opportunistic, often with no intention to...
" by Shane Robison, CTO of Hewlett Packard and others, allegedly accumulating patents not in order to develop products around them but with the goal to pressure large companies into paying licensing fees. Recent reports indicate that Verizon and Cisco made payments of $200 million to $400 million for investment and access to the Intellectual Ventures portfolio.
On December 8, 2010, Intellectual Ventures filed its first lawsuit, accusing Check Point
Check Point
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is a global provider of IT security solutions. Best known for its firewall and VPN products, Check Point first pioneered the industry with FireWall-1 and its patented stateful inspection technology...
, McAfee
McAfee
McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...
, Symantec
Symantec
Symantec Corporation is the largest maker of security software for computers. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and is a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500 stock market index.-History:...
, Trend Micro
Trend Micro
Trend Micro Inc. is a computer security company. It is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and markets Trend Micro Internet Security, Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security, OfficeScan, and other related security products and services...
, Elpida
Elpida Memory
is a corporation established in 1999 that develops, designs, manufactures and sells dynamic random-access memory products. It is also a semiconductor foundry. With headquarters in Yaesu, Chūō, Tokyo, Japan, it was formed under the name NEC Hitachi Memory in 1999 by the merger of the Hitachi, Ltd....
, Hynix
Hynix
Hynix Semiconductor Inc. chips and flash memory chips. Founded in 1983, Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chipmaker, the largest being Samsung Electronics. Formerly known as Hyundai Electronics, the company has manufacturing sites in Korea, the U.S., China and Taiwan...
, Altera
Altera
Altera Corporation is a Silicon Valley manufacturer of PLDs . The company offered its first programmable logic device in 1984. PLDs can be reprogrammed during the design cycle as well as in the field to perform multiple functions, and they support a fairly fast design process...
, Lattice
Lattice Semiconductor
Lattice Semiconductor Corporation is a United States based manufacturer of high-performance programmable logic devices . Founded in 1983, the company employs about 700 people and has annual revenues of around $300 million, with Darin Billerbeck as the chief executive officer...
and Microsemi of patent infringement. The company has also been accused of hiding behind shell companies for earlier lawsuits, an accusation consistent with the findings of NPR's Planet Money
Planet Money
Planet Money is an American podcast and blog produced by NPR. The podcast launched on September 6, 2008 to cover the global financial crisis of 2008–2009 in the wake of the Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was created after the success of "The Giant Pool of Money", an episode of...
in July 2011. The episode, which also aired as "When Patents Attack" of This American Life
This American Life
This American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is distributed by Public Radio International on PRI affiliate stations and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays,...
, was dedicated to software patents, prominently featuring Intellectual Ventures. It includes sources accusing Intellectual Ventures of pursuing a strategy encouraging mutually assured destruction, including Chris Sacca
Chris Sacca
Christopher Sacca is a venture investor, public speaker, private equity adviser, and former employee of Google Inc. He is an investor in Twitter.-Education:...
calling Nathan Myhrvold
Nathan Myhrvold
Nathan Paul Myhrvold , formerly Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, is co-founder of Intellectual Ventures. Myhrvold, usually with coinventors, holds 17 U.S. patents assigned to Microsoft and has applied for more than 500 patents. In addition, Myhrvold and coinventors hold 115 U.S...
's argument that Intellectual Ventures is offering protection from lawsuits a "mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
style shakedown
Shakedown
Shakedown may refer to:* Shakedown , a type of plastic deformation* Shakedown or a shakedown cruise, a period of testing undergone by a ship, airplane or other craft...
".
Intellectual Ventures staff are active in lobbying and testifying in court on United States patent policy. It reports its purchasing activity as of spring 2010 has sent $350 million to individual inventors and $848 million to small and medium size enterprises as well as returning "approximately $1 billion" to investors without filing any lawsuits. In March 2009 Intellectual Ventures announced expansion into China, India, Japan, Korea and Singapore to build partnerships with prominent scientists and institutions in Asia to create and market inventions.
While the company claims to assist independent inventors, one finding claimed that they have been unable to note a single case of aid they have provided to a single, independent inventor. The practice of legally prosecuting infringement of patents that are not used by the company to produce goods or services has been referred to as "patent troll
Patent troll
Patent troll is a pejorative but questioned term used for a person or company who is a non-practicing inventor, and buys and enforces patents against one or more alleged infringers in a manner considered by the target or observers as unduly aggressive or opportunistic, often with no intention to...
ing" by some investigative journalists and industrialists.
External links
- Intellectual Ventures - Main web site.
- Intellectual Ventures Lab - Lab web site and blog.
- This American Life Podcast, When Patents Attack!, July 22, 2011
- The New Yorker, Annals of Innovation: In the Air, by Malcolm Gladwell, May 12, 2008
- BusinessWeek Article (cover), Microsoft Inside Nathan Myhrvold's Mysterious New Idea Machine, July 3, 2006
- CNN Article, Who's afraid of Nathan Myhrvold?, Jun 26, 2006
- Boston Globe Article, To boost innovation, firm networks scholars, April 3, 2006
- Forbes Article, Patent Stalker, November 14, 2005 (Summary)
- CNET News Article, Microsoft alums amass thousands of patents, November 3, 2005