2004-11-15 MSNBC on Myhrvold: Megacorps creating their own Patent Trolls
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Myhrvold's "Intellectual Ventures" is buying up thousands of patents with money from companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Sony, Nokia, Apple, Google and eBay, in an attempt to create a large patent portfolio. One of the reasons is to buy out small patent trolls, so the big companies do not have to fear lawsuits from them. Another is however obviously offensive usage (royalty extraction), given the fact that "they charge that Silicon Valley companies have stolen other people's inventions for too long". A Silicon Valley VC notes "We're concerned that these giant pools of patent rights are going to prevent entrepreneurs from entering markets, as opposed to being used to promote innovation".
