Intellectual Ventures, the investment firm started by Microsoft billionaire Nathan Myhrvold, has amassed a collection of more than 20,000 patents, some of which Myhrvold may use to extort ridiculous amounts of money out of you.
And if he hasn't sued you yet, he will. Or he says he will, because he doesn't want people to think that he won't. Even though he really doesn't want to.
"If I appear to be a total milquetoast and say I'll never [sue], then people will rip me off totally," he told the Wall Street Journal.
It's odd that Myhrvold makes a moral distinction between demanding licensing payments -- reportedly ranging as high as $200 million to $400 million -- and actually suing. Either way, the licensees don't have much of a choice in the matter.
"[Intellectual Ventures] is operating on a scale where it becomes really difficult to just say 'no,'" said Henry Gutman, a lawyer at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, to the Wall Street Journal.
And is there a difference between a demand for licensing fees, when there's an implied threat of a lawsuit, and a real live lawsuit?
We don't begrudge Myhrvold for making a buck -- we like money, too -- but just because there's a hole in the system doesn't mean it should be exploited.
Photo: Flickr/Esther Dyson
