It is also a bit hard to take a shot at Interval as being a troll.
While many (most?) of us don't care for so-called software patents, Interval did
not acquire these patents. The patents all come from individuals who were
employed by Interval at the time of invention.
What
Intellectual Ventures do is get a bunch of people together for a weekend and
have them speculate on where the hot new areas of technology are going. Then
they have their lawyers write those ideas up as patents.
The people IV
get together are typically ones who have good connections to a particular
industry and have their ears to the ground as to current trends. That doesn't
mean the people with the connections came up with any of the ideas which end up
getting patented. It just means they have listened to the people who did.
This is classic patent trolling. They contribute nothing to the
industry, but rather just stick their flag in the ground where they think the
industry is going and then show up later after others have really built
something to erect a toll booth. Even if the troll is wrong 99% of the time
about where the industry is going, that 1% can still pay off. It's like wining a
lottery where someone else pays for your tickets.
So troll? IV's
entire business model is built on trolling.
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