Intellectual Ventures (IV), the world’s largest patent licensing company, was founded in 2000 by former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold. Google is also an investor in Intellectual Ventures. one. Washington-based Intellectual Property, which holds more than 35,000 patents, persuaded some of the largest technology companies to become investors in order to avoid litigation. It is reported that IV has just begun to file lawsuits to protect patents. IV filed its first patent infringement lawsuit in December 2013 against nine different technology companies, including Symantec and Trend Micro.
A document disclosed by IV in May this year showed that Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and many other companies have financial interests in the company.
According to IV's self-introduction, they are a company that promotes innovation. For example, they will cooperate with top inventors and provide financial support to the inventors during the invention process, and the inventors will receive patent rights in return. Then, IV will rely on these "patent rights" to other companies. Collect patent licensing fees to generate income. Intellectual Property says its mission is to promote the “invention-based economy” and that it is a good company to protect inventors. But in fact, some people believe that high-intelligence inventions have nothing to do with innovation or inventions, but are related to the protection of innovations and inventions.
Two university professors in the United States conducted a follow-up investigation of Intellectual Ventures and found that Intellectual Ventures first paid a one-time payment to the small company, and then divided the income each time it received from the patent. Part of it goes to small companies. When IV discovers that a company has infringed its laws, it will take the other party to court without hesitation.