Myths About Intellectual Ventures
www.intellectualventures.com
Myth #1: Intellectual Ventures Doesn’t Create Products.
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Fact: Our inventions have led to two spin-out companies, Kymeta, which makes
a radical new metamaterial antenna that will revolutionize mobile bandwidth,
and TerraPower, which is in the process of commercializing a new type of clean
and safe nuclear power plant. We have also recently partnered with the Finnish
company Raisio to market and sell a cattle feed supplement called Benemilk.
Fact: Intellectual Ventures is focused on invention, not making products.
o Most inventions are not suitable for creating an entire product or
founding a company. In those cases we license our patents to other
companies.
o Most market-leading technology products contain inventions that
Intellectual Ventures has licensed.
Myth #2: Intellectual Ventures is focused on enforcing patent rights with litigation.
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Intellectual Ventures’ preference is to license our patent portfolios.
When sophisticated companies turn a blind eye to infringement, we are forced
to take action to safeguard the value of our patents and to protect the interests
of our investors and customers. Infringers need to pay for the inventions they
are using.
Myth #3: Intellectual Ventures hides behind shell companies to hide its assets and sue
anonymously.
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Intellectual Ventures has never sued anyone anonymously. Not ever.
We have filed only a handful of lawsuits in our 12-year history, all against large
companies, and most after many years of failed negotiations. Every suit has
been filed openly and in our own name, and there is public record to prove it.
Myth #4: Intellectual Ventures exploits small businesses and harms individual
inventors.
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Intellectual Ventures has never targeted start-ups or small businesses for
patent enforcement.
We believe start-ups and small businesses have the most to gain from a strong
IP ecosystem where their inventions are protected and monetized in a
secondary market.
Copyright © 2013 Intellectual Ventures Management, LLC (IV). All rights reserved.
IV BY THE NUMBERS
Myths About Intellectual Ventures
www.intellectualventures.com
Myth #5: Intellectual Ventures possesses and enforces lousy, low-quality patents.
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Intellectual Ventures only purchases approximately 15 percent of all the patents it reviews, ensuring
that our patent portfolios represent the best quality patents in the industry.
The quality of Intellectual Ventures’ patent portfolio is borne out by the fact that some of the
world’s largest technology companies have become our customers and licensees.
Myth #6: Intellectual Ventures games the system by exploiting vulnerabilities in the existing patent laws.
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Intellectual Ventures is seeking to strengthen the patent system by creating a marketplace where
invention and innovation is rewarded.
Those who abuse the system, whether by broadly asserting lousy patents or by using and refusing to
license valid patents, should be stopped.
Intellectual Ventures condemns this kind of patent gamesmanship, which comes from both
practicing and non-practicing entities.
Myth #7: Intellectual Ventures drives up the cost of doing business, and therefore stunts economic
growth.
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Intellectual Ventures only seeks payment from companies that are using IV patents without license.
If this temporarily increases the operating costs for a specific company, that is only because they
were operating at below market cost by infringing the inventions and innovation of others.
Intellectual Ventures does not enter litigation lightly. The actions we take to protect our rights are
with established, patent-savvy technology companies who have the capabilities and resources to
ensure they are not infringing.
A properly functioning patent system is the foundation of our business model, along with the
understanding that a fair price must be paid for use of a patented invention.
Copyright © 2013 Intellectual Ventures Management, LLC (IV). All rights reserved.