nathanmyhrvold1
Intellectual Ventures CEO Nathan Myhrvold.

Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures on Tuesday filed its second complaint against Canon and first against Ricoh for infringing on its patents dealing with printing technology. IV approached both companies and tried to engage in licensing discussions, but those obviously never panned out.

This follows a series of IV lawsuits against Toshiba, SymantecAT&T, CenturyLink and Windstream, all filed in this year.

IV’s chief litigation counsel Melissa Finocchio wrote a longer-than-normal post about yesterday’s suits against Canon and Ricoh. She not only announced the complaints but also expanded on the foundation of IV’s business model.

The post, titled “The Problem of Patent Infringement,” discusses why a company like IV is good for the economy.

From the post:

The benefits of IV’s approach were noted in a recent Harvard Business Review article and more importantly, have been recognized by some of the world’s largest technology companies who have become IV customers and licensees. We’ve earned more than $2 billion from licensing our portfolios and have infused billions of dollars back into the economy through patent purchases. Assembling thousands of patents into various portfolios that match customers’ industries and areas of use allows IV’s customers to mitigate their business risk, deal with fewer patent holders and infringement claims, and negotiate fewer license agreements.

Finocchio continued, saying that patent infringers “pose a real threat to innovation.”

“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,” Finocchio wrote. “Infringers need to pay for the inventions they are using. An issued patent provides rights to the patent owner and when these rights are ignored, it impairs the incentives that spur invention and poses a real threat to innovation.”

You can read the post in full here.

Some people believe patent companies like IV are “crushing small businesses,” as Mark Cuban put it. To better understand the philosophy behind IV, we sat down with Myhrvold last year and he spoke in length about his thoughts and beliefs.

Previously on GeekWire: Kymeta: Is this Bill Gates’ next billion-dollar company?

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