Gates, Myhrvold tap startup vet to lead ‘Global Good’ technology initiative

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The position of “Vice President of Global Good” at Intellectual Ventures made news even before it was filled. The Bellevue company, with its massive patent holdings and controversial licensing practices, is a lightning rod in the tech industry. The very title of the job was viewed as highly dubious or at least ironic by the company’s… Read More…

Myhrvold to Slashdot: We’re more alike than you think

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With a caffeine-free Diet Coke and a cappuccino by his side, Nathan Myhrvold entered the “lion’s den” today — a.k.a. Slashdot — and tried to persuade the site’s denizens that he’s one of them … at least to an extent. “The fact is that I have more in common with you guys on /. than you might… Read More…

Intellectual Ventures sues Ricoh and Canon, says they pose a ‘threat to innovation’

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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, Symantec, AT&T, CenturyLink and Windstream, all filed… Read More…

Nathan Myhrvold to Microsoft alumni: ‘We participated in one of the most beneficial revolutions in human history’

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For nearly one hour, Nathan Myhrvold stood in front of members of the Microsoft Alumni Network and talked strictly about Modernist Cuisine — the epic, five-volume cookbook-to-end-all-cookbooks, featuring recipes engineered in a stainless-steel suburban lab, and photographs shot in a carefully lighted studio, created in collaboration with Myhrvold, co-founder of Intellectual Ventures and one of the technology… Read More…

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

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Wireless technology company Kymeta Corp. has been in business for a grand total of seven months, but already it has landed a $6.2 million engineering contract with the Inmarsat satellite company to accelerate its product development. Kymeta has grown to more than 40 employees and contractors, including some of the leading experts in the field, and its Redmond… Read More…

Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures settles with Lattice

Nathan Myhrvold

Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures has reached its second settlement agreement in its case against manufacturers in the semiconductor industry. The company announced today that it signed a license agreement and resolved a patent suit from a case filed in December 2010 against Lattice Semiconductor. Intellectual Ventures reached a similar settlement agreement in January with Microsemi, a maker of semiconductor systems for… Read More…

Intellectual Ventures sues AT&T, CenturyLink and Windstream over DSL patents

Nathan Myhrvold

Intellectual Ventures has filed suit against AT&T, CenturyLink and Windstream Communications, alleging that their DSL Internet services violate some of the tens of thousands of patents in Intellectual Ventures’ portfolio. The suits, filed last week in federal court in Texas, are the latest in a series of cases brought the Bellevue-based patent holding company and… Read More…

Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures settles with Microsemi, turns them into a customer

Nathan Myhrvold

Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures has entered into a settlement agreement with Microsemi, resolving the patent suit that it filed against the company in December 2010. Settlement terms were not revealed. But Microsemi, a maker of semiconductor systems for the communications, defense and aerospace industries, has agreed to license portions of Intellectual Ventures’ patent portfolio going forward. Intellectual… Read More…

Year in review: Vote for the top Seattle tech story of 2012

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It’s been quite the year in Seattle technology. Amazon.com kept growing. Microsoft kept transforming. And several startups raised huge rounds of cash as they looked to become the next Microsoft or Amazon. In case your head was filled with too many Tweets and Facebook posts to keep up, here’s a handy look back at the biggest… Read More…

Patent firm looks to ‘unravel complex web’ of Intellectual Ventures, but falls well short of crowdfunding goal

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Intellectual Ventures is no stranger to controversy, with the Bellevue patent holding firm routinely taking heat in the media (including the comment threads of GeekWire). Now a Berkeley patent analytics firm is looking to do something about Intellectual Ventures’ growing power in the patent world, and it is taking an unconventional approach to expose the… Read More…