“Technology’s most fearsome patent troll” slashes staff

Patent licensing company Intellectual Ventures (IV) has slashed its workforce by almost 20% after laying off scores of workers.

Of its 700 staff, around 140 have been told they no longer have jobs at the Bellevue, Washington-based company.

IV, founded in 2000, has a portfolio of around 70,000 patents and has made around 3,000 patent applications. According to the company it has nearly 40,000 patents in “active monetisation programmes”.

IV’s pursuit of licenses and its tendency to file lawsuits asserting its patents has caused some within the industry to label it a “patent troll”—non-practising entities that aggressively assert weak or frivolous patents.

The company was once described as “technology’s most fearsome patent troll” by Business Insider.

Despite the layoffs, Edward Jung, IV’s chief technology officer, told Bloomberg Businessweek that the company is not under threat.

“Our analysis has allowed us to save a lot of needless paperwork and become more efficient. We don’t need as many people to sift through and sort information now,” Jung said.

The companies IV has sued include US bank JP Morgan Chase for allegedly infringing five patents, some of which were related to online banking.

It also asserted three patents against Motorola, covering smartphone technology, but the US District Court for the District of Delaware ruled there had been a mistrial in February this year.

In a statement, IV said it made a global workforce reduction of 19%.

“We are making operational changes that are consistent with this reduction and will enable us to maintain and expand our leadership in the market for invention.”

The statement added: “Our assets—both people and IP—are among the best in the industry”.

IV did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the potential impact on its licensing business.