Intellectual Ventures

Intellectual Ventures was conceived by a Microsoft executive, Nathan Myhrvold, around the time that Microsoft struggled on several fronts. Intellectual Ventures is backed by Bill Gates (privately). Today, Intellectual Ventures is the world's largest patent troll and it habitually uses other smaller firms (reportedly over 1,000 of them) do handle litigation and assist blackmail in a pyramid scheme-like fashion. Some firms, like Dominion Harbor, buy patents from Intellectual Ventures purely for litigation/extortion, just like Finjan. Techrights has tracked Intellectual Ventures for several years and kept record of its activities in the posts below.

2018

 * More Litigation Ventures of Intellectual Ventures (Microsoft's Patent Troll) Stopped by Unified Patents
 * Multiple Microsoft-Funded Patent Trolls Are Attacking Microsoft's Rivals Inside and Outside the Courtrooms
 * Aggressive New Activities of Microsoft-Connected Patent Trolls: Finjan, Intellectual Ventures, and Dominion Harbor
 * Quick Mention: Dominion Harbor Reinforces Its Connection to Microsoft
 * Patent Trolls Watch: Microsoft-Connected Intellectual Ventures, Finjan, and Rumour of Technicolor-InterDigital Buyout
 * Microsoft Has Left RPX, But RPX Now Pays a Microsoft Patent Troll, Intellectual Ventures
 * Microsoft's Patent Moves: Dominion Harbor, Intellectual Ventures, Intellectual Discovery, NEC and Uber

2017

 * Canon Has Proven That Microsoft's Shell Game With Patent Trolls Makes 'Peace' Deals (Paying 'Protection' Money) Futile, Belatedly Joins OIN
 * Intellectual Ventures, GNU/Linux/Android/FOSS Patents, and the Ascent of European Patent Trolls
 * Patent Trolls Network-1 and Microsoft-Connected Finjan and Intellectual Ventures in the News Again
 * Microsoft's Patent Troll Intellectual Ventures is Going After Carriers Now
 * Microsoft’s Troll Intellectual Ventures, via Dominion Harbor, Goes Patent-Trolling in China
 * Microsoft and Bill Gates Become More Actively Involved in Their Biggest Patent Troll (and World's Biggest Troll), Intellectual Ventures
 * Patents of Microsoft’s Largest Troll, Intellectual Ventures, Are Sold to be Used Offensively
 * Intellectual Ventures -- Like Microsoft (Which It Came From) -- Spreads Patents to Manifest a Lot of Lawsuits
 * Dominion Harbor Group (DHG) is a Patent Troll Connected to Intellectual Ventures
 * The Long Reach of Microsoft's Patent Troll, Intellectual Ventures, and the Impact on TiVo
 * Xinova is a Patent Troll With Connections to Microsoft and Intellectual Ventures, the World’s Largest Troll
 * Kudelski Group Not Only Acts Like a Patent Troll But Also Run by Intellectual Ventures Person; Mobile Market in Dire State of Patent Armageddon

2016

 * Several Software Patents of Microsoft's Patent Troll Intellectual Ventures Have Just Been Trashed by the Federal Circuit, But Patent Law Firms Keep Quiet About It
 * Microsoft Says It Loves Linux, But Its Anti-Linux Patent Trolls Are Still Around and Active
 * Patent Bubbles Implode and Patents Are Passed to Trolls for 'Monetisation'
 * Microsoft's Patent Troll and Taxman Intellectual Ventures Gets Indirectly Closer to Google (Android/ChromeOS Steward) and to Linux
 * US Patent Trolls Epidemic and Microsoft/Intellectual Ventures' Latest Contribution to That
 * IAM Magazine Glorifies the World’s Largest Patent Troll, Microsoft’s and Bill Gates’ Patent Troll Intellectual Ventures
 * VENUE Act Not the Solution and Amid EFF News About Intellectual Ventures and Garfum It's Time to Tackle Software Patents
 * No, Biggest Patent Troll of 2014 is Not eDekka But a Microsoft-Connected and Bill Gates-Funded Patent Troll (or Extensive Network Thereof)

2015

 * IP Dealmakers Forum Brags About Having the World’s Largest Patent Troll as Keynote Speaker
 * The Alice Case Beats Microsoft's Patent Troll Intellectual Ventures (Yet Again)
 * Alice Case Beats Microsoft Patent Troll, USPTO Director Michelle Lee Wants Reform
 * Grooming of the World’s Biggest Patent Troll, Nathan Myhrvold of Microsoft and Intellectual Ventures
 * UCLA Foolishly Grooms Microsoft's Patent Troll Nathan Myhrvold (Intellectual Ventures), Who is Busy Attacking Android and Linux These Days
 * Microsoft’s Troll Intellectual Ventures Loses Software Patents
 * Microsoft Continues to Attack (and Tax) Linux Using Software Patents
 * Microsoft is Trying to Patent Software in India While Microsoft’s Proxy Troll Intellectual Ventures Extorts Motorola (Android)

2014

 * Bill Gates’ Pet Troll Intellectual Ventures is Collapsing as Founder Quits
 * Microsoft's Patent Troll Intellectual Ventures is Collapsing as 20% of Staff Laid Off
 * Microsoft’s and Bill Gates’ Biggest Patent Troll (Intellectual Ventures) Suffers Setback and Nokia is Dead While Patents Scattered to Microsoft Patent Proxies
 * More Microsoft Subsidies to Patent Troll Intellectual Ventures
 * Bill Gates’ Pet Patent Troll (Intellectual Ventures) is Seemingly Collapsing But Trying to Disrupt the Government With a PAC

2013

 * With Intellectual Ventures, the USPTO Becomes Basis for Pyramid Scheme, FTC Investigates
 * Microsoft’s Patent Mafia Called the Proof That Patent Trolls Must be Eradicated or Patent Law Changed
 * Millions of Dollars Worth of Lobbying From Patent-Trolling Giants Can Render Reform Against Trolls Effective Only Against Small Trolls
 * The World’s Biggest Patent Troll (and Racketeering/Pyramid Scheme Operation) Grows Closer to the Gates Foundation
 * US Government Should Kill Bill’s and Nathan’s Criminal Patent Racket and Pyramid Scheme, Intellectual Ventures
 * Intellectual Ventures Called a Microsoft Spinoff, Has Strong Ties to Bill Gates
 * Intellectual Ventures Pays for Another Propaganda Campaign Advocating Patent Trolls
 * Kindly Remind President Obama to Shut Down (Potentially Mass-Arresting) Massive Trolls Like Intellectual Ventures and End Software Patents
 * Microsoft is Suing Android/Google/Motorola Again, This Time Through Intellectual Ventures
 * Microsoft’s Patent Troll is Going After Banks Now, Expanding to Large-scale Racketeering Using Pyramid Scheme With Approximately 2,000 Proxies
 * Microsoft Sociopaths

2012

 * Microsoft Vultures Under Research Campaigns
 * Microsoft Patent Trolls Get Staff From Microsoft While ‘Mother Ship’ Sues Google Over Android
 * Slashdot and CBS/CNET Help Promote Patent Trolling
 * Bill Gates is Openly Promoting Patent Trolls Which Attack Linux
 * World’s Biggest Patent Troll, a Microsoft Offshoot, Takes Extortion Public Again

2011

 * Microsoft Extorts Linux Again, Its Troll Intellectual Ventures Suggested for Antitrust Intervention
 * Weeks After Google Buys Part of Motorola Microsoft’s Patent Troll Sues Motorola
 * Microsoft’s Patent Troll (IV) Helps Increase Microsoft Tax, BSA Changes Intellectual Monopoly Laws
 * Microsoft’s Proxy Fights (via Patent Trolls) Emerge in the Courtroom
 * Myhrvold’s “Criminal Enterprise”, Detkin’s Criticism of Extortionists and Terrorists (Which He Himself Became)
 * Rage Against the Masochist
 * Connection Between Patent Troll Lodsys and Former Microsoft CTO/Microsoft Proxy Highlighted
 * Lodsys Patent Attacks on Android (Linux) Developers Come From Microsoft’s Former CTO
 * Exclusive: Microsoft Patent Schemes Nobody Knows About
 * Microsoft’s Three Musketeers (Gates, Allen, Myhrvold) Still Assault the Market With Patents
 * SCO’s Strategic Consultant Mike Anderer Foresaw Microsoft-Organised Patent Lawsuits Against Linux (Through Small Companies)
 * Microsoft-backed Patent Troll, Intellectual Ventures, Takes More Toll and Lobbies the Government
 * Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold Find New Ways to Extort the Competitors, Using Patents
 * Microsoft Patent Trolls Intellectual Ventures and Interval Extortion Sue by Proxy, Directly
 * Microsoft’s Patent Troll Intellectual Ventures Is Reportedly Extorting Linux Now
 * Justice Department’s National Security Chief Becomes a ‘Patent Terrorist’ for Microsoft’s Nathan Myhrvold

2010

 * Red Hat Pushes for Patent Reform While Microsoft Patent Trolls Are Suing, Sometimes Losing
 * Microsoft’s Patent Troll Intellectual Ventures Starts Attacking Companies Directly
 * Intellectual Ventures and Other Microsoft-affiliated Groups Are Poisoning Linux With Patents
 * Microsoft Sellouts Join Microsoft’s Racket Intellectual Ventures and Not OIN
 * Microsoft Generates Massive Patent Troll Which Strikes Again
 * Microsoft’s Patent Trolls at Intellectual Ventures and Acacia Are Attacking Again
 * Intellectual Ventures Revisited as Facebook is Hoarding Patents; Apple Patents Other People’s Ideas/Implementations
 * Nathan Myhrvold (Intellectual Ventures) Gives Patents for Another Company to Sue With
 * Microsoft’s Software Patents Lobbyists and Patent Trolls
 * Is Nathan Myrhvold’s and Bill Gates’ Pyramid Scheme Finally Collapsing?
 * Gates Foundation Pays for Press Coverage of Its Work, Involved in Fatal Vaccination Disaster in India (With Merck), Collaborates With World’s Largest Patent Troll (IV)
 * Durham Logistics Unmasked as Potential Intellectual Ventures Proxy
 * Microsoft Sued by VirnetX (Again) and Kodak Alleges That Microsoft’s Patent Troll Bullies Companies Along With Ray Niro
 * Microsoft’s Patent Racketeer Intellectual Ventures a Weapons Feeder of Patent Wars
 * Intellectual Ventures “a Combination Mob Protection Racket + Ponzi Monetization Scheme”
 * Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures Could be Biggest Racketeering Operation in the United States and Beyond

2009

 * Nathan Myhrvold Connected to Father of Patent Trolling, Ray Niro
 * Microsoft Has the World’s Biggest Patent Troll, But What’s Up with Google?
 * Microsoft Takes Software Patents Agenda Up a Notch
 * Nathan Myhrvold/Bill Gates Use “Embrace and Extend” Against “Making it Easy for People to Do Competitive Operating Systems”
 * Microsoft IP Ventures and Intellectual Ventures
 * Why and How Microsoft Turned from a Software Company Into a Patent Aggressor/Taxman
 * Patents Roundup: Linux, Microsoft, Apple, Patent Trolls and Reform
 * Linus’ Old Employer Swept by Microsoft’s Patent Übertroll

2008

 * Patents Roundup: Microsoft|Myhrvold Trolls Fill Up Their Patent Basket
 * Searete a Part of Intellectual Ventures, a Patent-trolling Firm
 * Report: Bill Gates Becoming Patent Troll Like Nathan Myhrvold
 * Patents Roundup: Microsoft’s Own Patent Trolls Subjugate Indians; New Evidence of Ill Systems
 * Microsoft Storms India with Patents, by Proxy
 * Microsoft is a Major Patent Troll, By Proxy
 * Bill Gates Backs Patent Trolls, Microsoft Gets More Patents
 * Report: Microsoft’s Patent Racketeering Comes from Myhrvold
 * Latest Attempt to Expand Software Patents to Europe; Microsoft Shenanigan Revisited
 * Microsoft + Government + Patent Troll Push Against Free Software

2007

 * Nathan Myhrvold Intellectual Ventures Does Not Like GNU/Linux
 * A Reader’s Perspective: Entering the Minds of the Patent Trolls

Also see Acacia.