Intellectual Ventures reveals patent treasure chest
Non-practising entity (NPE) Intellectual Ventures (IV) has revealed a list of about 82 percent of its 40,000 strong patent portfolio.
The 33,125 patents, available on the firm’s website, cover industries including wireless, semi conductors, hardware and biomedical.
But the snapshot of the company’s portfolio excludes some newly-acquired patents, unpublished applications and applications “that may be subject to confidentiality arrangements with third parties”, the company said.
The move comes as NPEs come under increasing scrutiny in US Congress, where several bills seeking to restrict frivolous litigation are being discussed.
Though IV does not mention this political scrutiny, it said it is often subject to “curiosity” and that customers want to see what patents are available to buy or license.
Most likely, however, IV is responding to criticism that it is not transparent enough, said Christine Lehman, partner at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, and is making a “good faith” attempt to address these concerns.
In particular, IV has been accused of acquiring shell companies to sue third parties for patent infringement. IV denies this, saying that “we have never used our acquisition entities for litigation” and that when it sues “we do it openly, in our own name”.
The Federal Trade Commission, while never naming IV, has publicly raised concerns about this practice.
Lehman said: “Will Intellectual Ventures be able to say ‘that’s not what we’re doing’? If they can demonstrate that, it could help with the pressure that their business model is getting in Congress.
The list may be checked by lawyers when their clients are sued “by an entity you have never heard of”, Lehman said, in order to see whether IV has an interest in the suit.
“But you should be able to do that in any event,” she said, “I’m not sure what they hope to achieve.”
While IV are “obviously very smart people”, Lehman said, “I’m not sure how much the list will change people’s perceptions of their business.”
Since it started in 2001, IV has acquired more than 70,000 IP assets and today has nearly 40,000 patents in “active monetisation programmes”. The company says that the “bottom line” is that there is an active market for buying and selling invention rights, “and we engage in that market on both sides of the transaction – as both buyers and sellers”.
But IV does not consider itself a patent troll, said Lehman, adding that IV founder Peter Detkin claims to have coined the term “patent troll”.
US political pressure is ramping up on NPEs, and in recent Congressional hearings they have been openly called trolls. The Innovation Act, approved by the House of Representatives by 325 votes to 91 in December, is due to be heard in the Senate. Another bill, The Patent Transparency and Improvements Act of 2013, was heard in the Senate this week.
IV’s list of patents is available here.
