Intellectual Ventures

Intellectual Ventures Management, LLC
Company typePrivately held company
IndustryPatent monetization
Founded2000 Edit this on Wikidata
FounderNathan Myhrvold
Edward Jung
Peter Detkin
Gregory Gorder
Headquarters,
Number of locations
10
Number of employees
800
ASN6216 Edit this at Wikidata
Websitewww.intellectualventures.com

Intellectual Ventures is an American private equity company that centers on the development and licensing of intellectual property. Intellectual Ventures is one of the top-five owners of U.S. patents, as of 2011.[1] [verification needed] Its business model focuses on buying patents and aggregating those patents into a large patent portfolio and licensing these patents to third parties. The company has been described as the country's largest and most notorious patent trolling company,[2] the ultimate patent troll,[3] and the most hated company in tech.[4]

In 2009, the firm launched a prototyping and research laboratory, Intellectual Ventures Lab,[5] which attracted media controversy when the book SuperFreakonomics described its ideas for reducing global climate change. The firm also collaborates on humanitarian projects through its Global Good program.[6]

  1. ^ "Intellectual Ventures: Revealing Investors ", Patently-O blog, May 18, 2011. Consulted on May 21, 2011.
  2. ^ "RPX and the complicated business of stockpiling patents for good, not evil". Pando. 9 September 2013.
  3. ^ Robertson, Adi (4 February 2014). "The ultimate patent troll is going to trial against Google and Motorola". The Verge.
  4. ^ Kerstetter, Jim. "Inside Intellectual Ventures, the most hated company in tech". CNET.
  5. ^ "Bellevue lab is an inventor's real dream" by Brier Dudley, The Seattle Times - 27 May 2009
  6. ^ "Global Good". www.intellectualventures.com. Retrieved 2016-06-16.