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Intellectual Ventures: A massive patent pyramid scheme?
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| Cisco and others have coughed up hundreds of millions of dollars to
| Intellectual Ventures, and have taken some steps to try to combat the company
| and its ilk. It's a nice gesture, but Myhrvold and his investors apparently
| bring too much cash to the table, earning Intellectual Ventures the dubious
| distinction of being the world's largest patent troll.
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10046277-16.html
Intellectual Ventures Getting Antsy; Expect Lawsuits Soon
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| So what is new in this one? Well, less than a year after raising a $1 billion
| patent hoarding fund, he's out raising a new $2.5 billion fund. So it seems
| like he's good at getting press and raising money -- but not so much actually
| making money at this point (well, Myhrvold personally is doing fine, since
| the piece notes that he gets a 2% management fee, just like a VC). And that's
| where the saber rattling comes in. The article notes that Cisco and Verizon
| have paid up between $200 and $400 million as licensees -- though, to make it
| more confusing some of that is invested back into the fund for equity.
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http://techdirt.com/articles/20080918/0054422300.shtml
Related:
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| Sadly, many of these brilliant people have been blinded by the stock
| price and unable to see that Microsoft is also the key architect of
| the greatest financial pyramid scheme this century.
|
| It is not uncommon for participants in pyramid schemes to lose their
| emotional bearings. My close friends who work at Microsoft are
| particularly upset over my work and it is possible that even Bill
| Gates and Steve Ballmer do not realize the implications of their
| financial practices.
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http://www.billparish.com/msftfraudfacts.html
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| As with all pyramid schemes, it is important to get as close to tier
| 1 as possible. From a practical standpoint, usually only tiers 1 and 2
| will derive significant long-term economic rewards from such schemes.
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http://reactor-core.org/microsoft-pyramid.html
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