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Intellectual Ventures Tied To 1,300 Shell Companies

Posted by timothy on from the such-pretty-shells dept.

dgharmon writes "New research (PDF) shows that Intellectual Ventures is tied to at least 1,300 shell companies whose sole purpose is to coerce real companies into buying patent license that they don't want or need. Those who resist the 'patent trolls' are dragged into nightmarish lawsuits."

1 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What happened to the days of hitmen? by andydread · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yep .. See Oracle vs Google. If Oracle had asked for a reasonable ransom maybe Google would have just payed it and be done with it. However Oracle asked for billions of dollars and so Google told them to go fuck sand. So the sued and many of their patents got re-examined and thrown out by the USPTO while other patents were found by the jury NOT to have been infringed by Google. This is the nightmare scenario that trolls fear. Also, see Judge Willian Alsup and Judge Richard Posner. Its mostly in the Eastern District of Texas they can consistently get a away with this crap.