Ron Schenone

I Own 20,000 Patents So Pay Up

Posted by on Sep 18, 2008 | 7 Comments

Some people collect baseball cards. Others like Jay Leno, collect old cars. But this former Microsoft executive collects patents. Nathan Myhrvold and his company, Intellectual Ventures, collects patents. The company now has an arsenal of 20,000 + patents and is now saying ‘pay up’. So who are the targets of this scheme?

IBM and Texas Instruments have been hit with patent suits, but it looks like more may be on the way. In this article it states that:

All of this fear is from people who have guilty knowledge of their own actions. There are lots of major tech companies that grew from zero to gigantically successful in a very short period of time without investing in their own inventions. They got there by using other people’s inventions.

Myhrvold implies that:

The free ride is over.

Some are claiming that Intellectual Ventures are nothing more than ‘patent trolls’. Which brings up an interesting point. If some steals anthers idea and profits from it, shouldn’t they be taken to task? Or is it OK to steal from people who can not defend their patents?

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

Source.

  • Martin Kruse

    Many patents are too broad or too vague.

  • http://allantyoung.com/2008/09/20/the-state-of-intellectual-property/ Allan

    Myhrvold isn’t “stealing” other people’s ideas. What he does with his firm Intellectual Ventures is buy up other people’s ideas and patents. He owns those 20,000 patents.

    It should be interesting to see if other people will start competing with him to buy up valuable patents.

  • ibjester

    If an idea is not yours and you take it, either illegally or through a morally corrupt use of the law, then it simply is not yours regardless how you try and rationalize your actions. To purchase that idea with a morally fair price and the consent of its creator then there is no reason you can not obtain as many as you honestly can afford. Those who steal another’s ideas should definitely be taken to task hopefully to the extent of what they would have gained by their acts.

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