

Intellectual Ventures v. The World - calbucci
http://www.geekwire.com/2011/intellectual-ventures-responds-american-life-expos-we-fundamentally-disagree

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earth2travis
Intellectual Vultures claim they invest in invention when in actuality they
are simply scavenging on the carrion of inventors. Not a single technology
from their lab has made it into commercial use. Instead they have created a
culture of litigation and fear within the software industry.

30 percent of U.S. patents are essentially on things that have already been
invented. Almost anyone trying to start a business on the Internet is guilty
of infringement. Once you have enough success to become visible in the public
eye you immediately become a target of patent trolls. Precious resources (time
and money) are wasted defending lawsuits or getting sued out of existence.

Large companies are also wasting resources amassing defensive arsenals of
patents. Apple and a consortium of other tech companies recently purchased
Nortel's portfolio for $4.5 billion dollars in the largest patent auction in
history. Unfortunately this is not to use these technologies. Rather it is
saying, "If you sue me, I'll sue you."

This cycle is not creating value it is destroying it. It gets in the way of
new ideas and products and wastes resources on litigation instead of
innovation.

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prayag
IV is just a technology scum-bag. There's nothing more to it. No, Mr.
Myhrvold, ideas have no inherent value. An idea needs execution for it to
produce any value. If everyone starts coming up with ideas and nobody executes
them, what will be the fucking point. We would have thought of everything and
would have done nothing because it's cheaper/easier to come up with ideas than
to actually make an effort to turn them into reality.

I hate patent trolls so bad. It's a pity things have come to this.

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rexreed
I can see a future where potential acquirers of startups (i.e. big guys with
big patent portfolios) put meager acquisition offers to promising (and
threatening) startups on the one hand, and a gun in the other with the threat
to sue the poor startup to oblivion if they don't accept the offer. The
aggregation of patent portfolios into the hands of a small cartel couldn't
possibly be beneficial to startups and the innovation economy.

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AdamTReineke
I caught the program by accident today and really enjoyed it. The MP3 should
be up on their site at 7pm (not sure which timezone).
[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/441/w...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/441/when-patents-attack)

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jamesaguilar
It seems like a good idea for a big tech company to invest in this thing to
hedge against patent suit risks. It's still probably a net loss for them, but
probably less so than if they didn't hedge. The real people left footing the
bill are whoever is funding the courts.

~~~
rdl
The other people left footing the bill are all the inventions which don't get
invented (inventors and end users), startups which need to raise extra VC or
avoid being put out of business, etc.

The external costs of this is why the system itself should be changed.

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CamperBob
IV protects inventors the way the RIAA protects artists. Just what the world
needs... another cartel.

