20090701 Microsoft's Myhrvold Troll Shows That Racketeering Pays Off
From s5h.net
Don't Feed the Super-Troll
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 “offers”. 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 More proof that USPTO is an ill joke. Interview With A Patent Troll... Which Skips The Key Questions
Aaron Martin-Colby points us to Good Magazine's softball interview with Erich Spangenberg, considered by many to be one of the more successful "patent trolls" or "non-practicing entities" out there.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090629/1145455403.shtml Microsoft's puppet Novell still applies for software patents: Patents
Network content in dictionary-based (de)compression , patent No. 7,554,467, invented by Kasman E. Thomas of Wilton, Conn., assigned to Novell, Inc. of Provo.
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_12725521
Recent
Patent Reform & Campaign Cash
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
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
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
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 ‘innovation'. 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 Myhrvold’s Patent Extortion Fund Is Reaping Hundreds Of Millions of Dollars
Don’t 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 Gates’ right-hand man at Microsoft during the 1990s, does it through his patent-gobbling fund, Intellectual Ventures.
Invention Capitalism & the Law: Checking in on Nathan Myhrvold
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. “I say, ‘I can’t afford to sue you on all of these, and you can’t afford to defend on all these,’” he said.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/09/17/invention-capitalism-the-law-checking-in-on-nathan-myhrvold/
Nathan Myhrvold: Alpha patent troll?
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 Myhrvold’s 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 Myhrvold’s 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
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
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.
Transcript: Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures
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!
Unlike most other pure licensing companies, Intellectual Ventures hasn’t filed patent-infringement lawsuits to help force settlements. But the group lobbying on behalf of tech companies in Washington, the Coalition for Patent Fairness — which includes several companies that have been approached for licensing deals by Intellectual Ventures — says it is only a matter of time. “Since 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,” 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
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
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
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 – 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?
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?
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
This time though, while Ballmer slinks away to try to con … 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
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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