"A patent troll is somebody who tries to make a lot of money off a patent that they are not practicing and have no intention of practicing and in most cases never practiced."

Tasters :

Last January a dozen of the world's most respected scientists gathered in a nondescript conference room at an office building outside of Seattle. They sat around a table cluttered with laptops and papers, snacked on bowls of beef jerky and Chex Mix, and plotted the next technological revolution.

The brainstorming session, practically unintelligible to those with a less-than-Mensa-level IQ, took place at the offices of Intellectual Ventures, a start-up founded in 2000 by former Microsoft Corporation chief technologist Nathan Myhrvold. No intellectual slouch himself, Myhrvold not only led the discussion, but was an eager contributor, sketching out flow charts on a large whiteboard at the front of the room. A handful of patent prosecutors, charged with translating "aha moments" into patent applications, desperately tried to follow along, noting every reference, pulling up obscure theorems on their computers, and snapping photos of Myhrvold's scribblings.

This is the friendly face of Intellectual Ventures. At the Bellevue, Washington-based company, the science hails from Star Trek but the business plays out like Star Wars. For the past six years, Myhrvold and his Jedi inventors have been brainstorming, developing, and patenting their best ideas. The company doesn't plan on manufacturing, or commercializing, a product. "We are a pure play about invention," says Myhrvold with prototypical passion. "Really big ideas have to come from somewhere."

But at Intellectual Ventures, not all the big ideas come from the Jedis. Another arm of the 100-employee company, headed up by former Intel Corporation in-house counsel Peter Detkin--a Darth Vader figure to many--has been buying up thousands of patents through shell corporations. A $400 million investment from some of the biggest technology companies, including Nokia Corporation, Intel, Apple Computer Inc., Sony Corporation, and Microsoft, funds the shopping spree. (None of these companies would comment for this story.) Some in the IP asset management field estimate that Intellectual Ventures has amassed 3,000-5,000 patents.

As the patent stockpile grows, so does the speculation--and the fear. IP lawyers and tech executives worry that Intellectual Ventures is less interested in changing the world with big ideas, and more focused on becoming an Ÿber-troll, wreaking litigation havoc across industries with its patents.

Conclusion :

All your base are belong to us

Source : http://www.ipww.com/display.php/file=/texts/0506/venture

Interesting read. Patents are really getting out of hand. I seen this documentary about farmers in the US. This one particular company genetically modified a seed that could withstand certain pesticides. This particular seed was spread EVERYWHERE. They then sued all the farmers that had that particular seed growing in thier field. What a kick in the nuts that is. Most had to close thier farms. And i can't recall exactly what the figure was but for those in america, whatever you've eaten today grown from seeds was probably grown from one of them genetically modified seeds.