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World's Largest Patent Troll Fires First Salvo

Posted by kdawson on from the sleeping-under-the-world's-largest-bridge dept.

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes "Yesterday the biggest software patent troll of all finally woke from its slumbers: Intellectual Ventures filed patent infringement complaints in the US District Court of Delaware against companies in the software security, DRAM and Flash memory, and field-programmable gate array industries. Intellectual Ventures was co-founded by Microsoft's former CTO Nathan Myhrvold, with others from Intel and a Seattle-based law firm." We discussed IV's potential for patent trollery last spring.

7 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Re:My question about IV... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Informative

    Will IV allow licensing of their patent portfolio, or will they do like a lot of companies, just get patents so nobody else can use them?

    Well, the original Slashdot article linked in TFS indicates that "it doesn't actually use these patents – except to threaten people with. In other words, Intellectual Ventures is a patent troll". They only license their patent portfolio. Expect this to basically be a shakedown.

    Man, I hate that a company can exist just to own patents and sue people.

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    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  2. Actually the Article Notes RPX Corp. by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Good, I think. Hopefully this will finally cause big companies to fight to get rid of software patents and patent troll companies as a whole.

    Actually, the response has not been to rid the world of software patents as you so hoped and the threat of Intellectual Ventures has long been affecting companies. From the article:

    The threat posed by Intellectual Ventures helped prompt the rise of firms like RPX Corp. It is paid by companies to buy up potentially threatening patents; the companies receive licenses to those patents, and RPX pledges never to sue over them.

    Think about that for a second. The system for software patents is so screwed up and backwards that it's cheaper to pay someone to buy up a patent and promise to never sue over it than it is for you to build a patent war chest and wait for the big one to hit. It's like patent insurance. Easily the most interesting thing in the article to me. Unfortunately this shows tolerance and a way to move forward.

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    My work here is dung.
  3. Intel vs. McAfee via IV by bark · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The article states that Intel is one of the investors of Intellectual Ventures. The article also says that one of the lawsuits was filed against McAfee, which Intel recently bought. So in this case, Intel is hiring someone else to sue itself - it would be much easier to hold an employee venting day if that's all they wanted to do.

  4. Neal Stephenson has a hand in this by jefurii · · Score: 5, Interesting
    From the Intellectual Ventures page on his personal site:

    I work part-time at Intellectual Ventures Labs, which enables me to get out of the house and exercise the nerdy predilections that I used to exercise at Blue Origin. This is a sort of all-purpose science lab and thing-making facility where new inventions are developed.

    1. Re:Neal Stephenson has a hand in this by theodicey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I once knew someone who was naive enough to confuse a patent troll operation with a real Menlo Park skunkworks/invention lab.

      She was 22 years old and looking for a job; what's Stephenson's excuse?

  5. Re:swine... by noidentity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, the corruption of capitalism with imaginary property is why these things are in the toilet. It's an artificial monopoly over everyone's (non-imaginary) property.

  6. Just Like Copyright by bky1701 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Imaginary property like patents and copyright always consolidates power over information into the hands of the few. They do not protect the creators, they make ideas a commodity to be traded.

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    Great Intellect...