Intelectual Ventures = Patent Troll, Extortionists

Nathan Myhrvold is a genius and a polymath. He made hundreds of millions of dollars as Microsoft's chief technology officer, he's discovered dinosaur fossils, and he recently co-authored a six-volume cookbook that "reveals science-inspired tech­niques for prepar­ing food." Myhrvold has more than 100 patents to his name, and he's cast himself as a man determined to give his fellow inventors their due. In 2000, he founded a company called Intellectual Ventures, which he calls "a company that invests in invention."

Nathan Myhrvold destroys technological innovation and scientific creativity. His corporation, Intellectual Ventures (e.g. Computing Platforce, LLC., or Quan Holdings, Enhanced Software, LLC) buys up thousands of patents, shuffles them through a series of shell-corporations, and uses them to hide what they are doing. Nathan claims he is defending inventors ... so why hide?

In the interview, the Chief Council of I.V. couldn't even tell the producers when they bought a particular patent from Chris Crofford the patent inventor. Thom Ewing said they might likely be independently owned interested parties, i.e. they get a cut of the back-end arrangement for a percentage, e.g. a cut of the lawsuits.

They buy up thousands of patents and sue giant companies like Apple and Google to "monetize" and "Realize the Value" of the intellectual property. In other words they EXTORT MONEY from those who can afford, and give nothing to the inventors.

This American Life and Planet Money uncover the broken nature of our US Patent System, that issues duplicate patents for things like "Thermally Refreshing Bread" (i.e. Toast, 2000).

The patent process actually stifles innovation because they are so broad that everyone must break patents to do everything they want to do on the internet. The lawyers destroy our world.

A mysterious corporation: Oasis Research, 104 East Houston Street, suite 190, Marshal, TX, which has no employees, is a shell that owns many other mysterious corporations such as Bulletproof and Jellyfish, that create legal firewalls between the 'owners' of the patents and the potential legal accountability that is somewhere in the future. Just another beautiful scheme from Texas.

"Litigation is just licensing by other means." - If companies pay, then more patents are filed. Thus all big corporations have amassed large libraries of patents, to defend themselves against lawsuits, via mutually assured destruction. Thus, if you sue us, then we sue you. But only the largest players can amass such arsenals. So "Intellectual Ventures" shake-down most companies saying, 'It sure would be unfortunate if someone sued you. Why not hire IV to protect you from such suits.' 

Civil Lawsuits, thousands of lawsuits, by fake corporations owned by lawyers. Makes me want to shower just thinking about it. But in collecting $2-Billion in 'royalties', is the "Troll On Steroids" - Oasis Research (i.e. Intellectual Ventures) helping inventors collect on patents or just extorting protection money? But unless they achieve $35-Billion over he next 10 years, the venture capitalists behind Intellectual Ventures, will not be happy. That's an unnecessary expense, that will be passed on to the customer, destroying every innovative new competitor in the process.

ACN Investigation

Beware of Multi-Level-Marketing Schemes that use Pyramid Structures to create 'risidual income' without producing a product or service.


ALL multi-level-marketing schemes are unethical by their very nature. They concentrate wealth in the hands of a few, without fairly sharing the effort to generate that wealth. The pyramid model is very popular, but it charges customers a non-competitive premium in order to fund all the middle men up the chain. It is a scheme to motivate network marketing for inferior products at high cost.

Among dubious Multilevel Marketing corporations like AMWAY and ACN, Avon or Marry Kay, are a few good people trying to figure out how to make money. These entrepreneurs are taught how to sell other people's products and services, because they don't have anything else. But beware, the scheme teaches unethical practices, because you treat people as a means to an end, instead of an end in themselves. Any company that asks you to invest YOUR money up front to gain a 'business opportunity' where you will earn 'residual income' without producing a product or service, is a BAD CORPORATION.

I've written this because of a threat to my own industry (Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy). American Communications Network, Inc., a phone service company, has begun selling people renewable energy appliances. Beware of ACN collecting homeowner's personal financial information to sell them unnecessary products without properly assessing their building safety or energy needs. All ethical photovoltaic businesses do full home energy audits and building safety inspections, then recommend and encourage energy efficiency remodeling on existing real-estate before installing any renewable energy appliances, like solar panels.

As customers should know ACN, Inc. is not a publicly traded corporation, it is a privately held corporation, so it is beyond SEC control. American Communication Network, Inc. doesn't trade on any SEC regulated stock exchange (note the ACN stock symbol is for a different company, Accenture ).

-Michael Russell
http://www.sdsustainablefuture.com