industry patent monetization founder nathan myhrvold edward jung peter detkin gregory gorder headquarters bellevue washington united states number of locations 10 number of employees 800 website www.intellectualventures.com this article may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints . please improve the article by adding information on neglected viewpoints or discuss the issue on the talk page . october 2016 intellectual ventures is a private company that centers on the development and licensing of intellectual property . intellectual ventures is one of the top five owners of u.s. patents as of 2011 . 1 its business model has a focus on buying patents and aggregating them into a large patent portfolio and licensing these patents to third parties . in 2009 intellectual ventures launched a prototyping and research laboratory called intellectual ventures lab 2 which attracted media controversy when the book superfreakonomics described its ideas for reducing global climate change . intellectual ventures also collaborates on humanitarian projects through its global good program . 3 contents 1 overview 2 investment funds 3 intellectual ventures lab 4 global good 5 companies created by intellectual ventures 6 controversy 7 references 8 external links overview edit in 2000 intellectual ventures was founded as a private partnership by nathan myhrvold and edward jung of microsoft later joined by co founders peter detkin of intel and gregory gorder of perkins coie . the intellectual ventures management company is owned 40 % nathan myhrvold 20 % peter detkin 20 % gregory gorder and 20 % edward jung . they reportedly have raised over 5.5 billion from many large companies including microsoft intel sony nokia apple google yahoo american express adobe sap nvidia and ebay plus investment firms such as stanford hewlett foundation mayo clinic and charles river ventures . 4 in december 2013 intellectual ventures released a list of approximately 33 000 of the nearly 40 000 assets in their monetization program . 5 6 licenses to patents are obtained through investment and royalties . 7 in march 2009 intellectual ventures announced expansion into china india japan korea and singapore to build partnerships with prominent scientists and institutions in asia to create and market inventions . investment funds edit the company operates three primary investment funds 8 invention investment fund iif purchasing existing inventions and licensing them invention development fund idf partnering chiefly with research institutions to file descriptions of inventions which don t currently exist investment science fund isf focused on internally developed inventions intellectual ventures lab edit in 2009 intellectual ventures launched a prototyping and research laboratory called intellectual ventures lab hiring prominent scientists to imagine inventions which could exist but do not yet exist and then filing descriptions of these inventions with the us patent office . notable participants of this process include robert langer of mit leroy hood of the institute for systems biology ed harlow of harvard medical school danny hillis of applied minds and sir john pendry of imperial college . citation needed the sunday times reported that the company applies for about 450 patents per year in areas from vaccine research to optical computing and as of may 2010 91 of the applications had been approved . 9 internally developed inventions include a safer nuclear reactor design which won the mit technology review top 10 emerging technologies in 2009 that can use uranium waste as fuel or thorium which is plentiful and poses no proliferation risk 10 a mosquito targeting laser 11 and a series of computer models of infectious disease . 12 their efforts to promote a method to reverse or reduce the effects of global climate change by artificially recreating the conditions from the aftermath of a volcanic eruption gained media coverage following the release of the book superfreakonomics . information in the fifth chapter of the book about global warming proposes that the global climate can be regulated by geo engineering of a stratoshield 13 based upon patented technology from nathan myhrvold s company . 14 the chapter has been criticized by some economists and climate science experts who say it contains numerous misleading statements and discredited arguments including this presentation of geoengineering as a replacement for co2 emissions reduction . among the critics are paul krugman 15 brad delong 16 the guardian 17 and the economist . 18 elizabeth kolbert a science writer for the new yorker who has written extensively on global warming contends that just about everything they levitt and dubner have to say on the topic is factually speaking wrong . 19 in response levitt and dubner have stated on their freakonomics blog that global warming is man made and an important issue . they warn against claims of an inevitable doomsday ; instead they look to raise awareness of other less traditional or popular methods to tackle the potential problem of global warming . 20 lowell wood an inventor in residence at intellectual ventures became the most patented inventor in us history in 2015 breaking the record held by thomas edison for over 80 years . global good edit global good is collaboration between intellectual ventures and the gates foundation that develops solutions for pressing problems in the developing world . global good has developed a wide range of technologies including the following arktek is a passive vaccine storage device that allows vaccines to be transported to parts of the world that lack reliable refrigeration . arktek uses a small amount of ice to for cooling and requires no external power supply . arktek s extraordinary insulation allows it to keep vaccines cold for over a month even in climates where daytime temperatures exceed 100 degrees fahrenheit . in more mild environments it can last even longer . 21 arktek has been used to transport vaccines around the world and nathan myhrvold believes the device may be useful for transporting organs . intellectual ventures also produced a specially modified version of the arktek to transport newly developed ebola vaccines to sierra leonne and guinea during the 2014 ebola outbreak . the ebola vaccine needed to be kept much colder than most vaccines . the modified arktek containers were able to store ebola vaccines at 76 to 112 degrees fahrenheit for up to three days in tropical conditions . 22 the photonic fence is a device designed to identify and kill mosquitos with lasers to prevent malaria . lowell wood an intellectual ventures researcher who once worked on the strategic defense initiative suggested the company explore using lasers to shoot down mosquitos . within a year mosquitos were being shot down . the photonic fence uses a non lethal laser to track insects and monitor their wing beat frequency . if it detects a female mosquito the device fires a kill laser . the photonic fence has an effective range of 100 feet and can purportedly kill up to 100 mosquitoes per second . the photonic fence has not yet been mass produced but intellectual ventures claims that the lightning science group and global good are collaborating to produce field ready units . 23 the autoscope uses artificial intelligence to diagnose malaria . the device has been field tested in thailand and reportedly outperformed the average human diagnostician . however the autoscope is not yet scheduled for mass production . 24 mazzi is a milk jug designed for farmers in the developing world . intellectual ventures partnered with heifer international to design mazzi which is cheap sturdy and easy to clean . in addition the jug features a funnel that results decreased spillage . jane maindi manager of heifer international s east africa dairy development research efforts reported that kenyan farmers who participated in our pilot program have been raving about mazzi and crediting it with reducing wastage and spillage improving yields and increasing their incomes . companies created by intellectual ventures edit intellectual ventures has created a number of independent companies to bring its discoveries to mass market . examples include kymeta a satellite technology company 25 terrapower which seeks to improve nuclear power 26 evolv which applies metamaterials to imaging 27 and echodyne a metamaterials based radar communications company . 28 controversy edit main article patent trolling publicly intellectual ventures states that a major goal is to assist small inventors against corporations . in practice the vast majority of iv s revenue comes from buying patents aggregating these patents into a single portfolio spanning many disparate technologies and tying these patents together for license to other companies under the threat of litigation or filing lawsuits for infringement of patents a controversial practice referred to as patent trolling . 29 intellectual ventures purchased patents have largely been kept secret though press releases with telcordia and transmeta indicated some or all of their patent portfolios were sold to the company . it reports its purchasing activity as of spring 2010 has sent 350 million to individual inventors and 848 million to small and medium size enterprises as well as returning approximately 1 billion to investors before filing any lawsuits but iv s assistance to individual inventors has been contested . 30 investigative journalism suggests that the company makes most of its income from lawsuits and licensing of already existing inventions rather than from its own innovation . intellectual ventures has been described as a patent troll by shane robison 31 cto of hewlett packard and others allegedly accumulating patents not in order to develop products around them but with the goal to pressure large companies into paying licensing fees . recent reports indicate that verizon and cisco made payments of 200 million to 400 million for investment and licenses to the intellectual ventures portfolio . 32 on december 8 2010 in its 10th year of operations intellectual ventures filed its first lawsuit accusing check point mcafee symantec trend micro elpida hynix altera lattice and microsemi of patent infringement . in september 2016 the court of appeals for the federal circuit ruled that all the relevant patent claims in the lawsuit were invalid because the patent merely applies a well known idea using generic computers . 33 the company has also been accused of hiding behind shell companies for earlier lawsuits 34 an accusation consistent with the findings of npr s planet money in july 2011 . 35 the episode which also aired as the this american life episode when patents attack 36 was dedicated to software patents prominently featuring intellectual ventures . it includes sources accusing intellectual ventures of pursuing a strategy encouraging mutually assured destruction including chris sacca calling myhrvold s argument that intellectual ventures is offering protection from lawsuits in a mafia style shakedown . 37 however intellectual ventures internal research development and commercialization activities have softened this image . following a series of research project announcements by intellectual ventures intellectual property columnist jack ellis wrote although licensing is bound to remain a big part of what it does the more agreements of the kind signed this week iv is involved in the harder it will be to label as a troll . intellectual ventures staff are active in lobbying and testifying in court on united states patent policy . 38 references edit intellectual ventures revealing investors patently o blog may 18 2011 . consulted on may 21 2011 . bellevue lab is an inventor s real dream by brier dudley the seattle times 27 may 2009 global good . www.intellectualventures.com . retrieved 2016 06 16 . defendants certificate of interest pdf . us district court n. california . 2011 05 16 . intellectual ventures find a patent . 2013 12 16 . richardson kent 2014 06 14 . what s inside iv s patent portfolio . iam magazine . london . issue 66 . july august 2014 ubuntu microsoft is patent pal by matthew broersma pcworld 23 may 2007 investing in invention . intellectual ventures . retrieved 2010 12 26 . harris mark may 16 2010 . green pioneers godfather of nutty inventions . the times . london . mark harris the sunday times may 16 2010 tr10 traveling wave reactor by