Intellectual Ventures: Patent Troll plans to Start actually making things, not breaking things.
Intellectual Ventures: Patent Troll Funds Startups, New Products – Businessweek:
The worlds largest patent troll, apparently, has decided to go legit. Kinda.
This company, aptly abbreviated IV as in a vampire draining blood, is the largest holder of patents with some 70,000. More than IBM with more than 20 years as the world’s largest patenting company, by far.
With such a war chest of patents, it is hard for anyone to make anything that doesn’t violate their patents. This is especially the case if you don’t actually make anything, as a perfect troll would do.
So IV has been drawing blood for the economy on a rather endless basis. But, if you pay the blood money for a few of their patents, you get “protection” where nobody else can mess with you without having to fight the entire war chest of IV.
It seems like the perfect business model based on pirates and Somalian entrepreneurs.
So why break such a tried and proven business model?
I think on the tax returns, where you put our line of business, entering “Patent Troll” is likely no problem for the IRS. They will take the taxes on those profits just the same as for the companies that actually produced a product.
We have a few ideas why the patent troll would change his stripes, but we would like to hear what others have to offer?
