Nathan Myhrvold on patent mongers and business

July 11, 2007, 04:59 PM —  IDG Now — 

The basic framework of Nathan Myhrvold's story is well known. Born in Seattle in 1959, he went to college at age 14, taking a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1979 at the same time he earned master's in geophysics and space physics at UCLA. Then, came the master's in mathematical economics two years later before Ph.Ds in theoretical and mathematical physics, both at Princeton. He was 23 at that point when he headed to Cambridge University in the U.K. for post-doctoral work in cosmology and quantum theory with Stephen Hawking, who holds the mathematics chair that Sir Isaac Newton held 300 years ago.

A man of multiple interests, in 1984 Myhrvold started a software company called Dynamical Systems, to produce an equation editor. It wasn't long before he attracted the attention of Bill Gates. Microsoft bought Dynamical Systems in 1986 and Myhrvold became Microsoft's chief technology officer, a post he left in 2000 with what is estimated to be more than US$600 million. He then started AIntellectual Ventures, a company with which he hopes to reinvent the IT industry business model.

In this interview, Myhrvold, 48, details his business strategy and defends himself from those who call him "the most feared man in Silicon Valley" and "a very large patent troll."

IDG: Intellectual Ventures is a company devoted to buying potentially profitable patents -- some say you've already bought more than 3,000 -- as well as providing a pleasant environment for very smart scientists to produce new inventions and share the patent rights with the company. Could you explain this new business model?

Myhrvold: I left Microsoft and started Intellectual Ventures because I loved the idea of changing the business model for developing technology. At IV, we invest in invention -- invention is our asset. Some of the invention we do ourselves and some we buy from others. I compare the different parts of our business to the venture capitalist and private equity models.

On the side where we are inventing ourselves, we are supplying capital and expertise much as a venture capitalist would. Only, we're doing this in order to stimulate the ideas. Essentially, we are providing capital and expertise to some of the world's greatest inventors to help stimulate new ideas. Currently we have nearly 45 senior inventors who work with us on a part-time basis to brainstorm ideas across a wide range of technologies. As of August 2003, when we actively started inventing, we have held 90 invention sessions, resulting in the filing of close to 1,000 patent applications and we have received nearly 20 patents. In the U.S., the latency between patent filing and issuance is at least 18 months but usually longer.

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

I like it!
Post a comment
The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
peer-to-peer

jfruh
Apple syncing patent can't come soon enough

pasmith
New Twitter features borrow from 3rd party clients

Esther Schindler
Open Source Changes the Software Acquisition Process

mikelgan
How to set up continuous podcast play on the new iTunes

David Strom
Five important Windows 7 mobility features

sjvn
Guard your Wi-Fi for your own sake                        

Sandra Henry-Stocker
Grepping on Whole Words

 

Sidekick: The Good News & the Bad News
Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
- mburton325

Join the conversation here

The Daily Tip

The Daily TipQuick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.

Hot tips:

Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.

Newsletters

Subscribe to ITWORLD TODAY and receive the latest IT news and analysis.

I would like to receive offers via email from ITworld partners.
By clicking submit you agree to the terms and conditions outlined in ITworld's privacy policy.
Featured Sponsor

AISO founders envisioned a Web hosting company that was environmentally friendly. While the company employed energy-efficient innovations like solar panels, its infrastructure produced unacceptable power and cooling requirements. Find out how AISO leveraged AMD technology to overcome their challenge in this case study white paper.

In this whitepaper, Scalar explores the opportunity to change the landscape with respect to mission critical databases built around Oracle. Leveraging technologies such as Linux, high-end commodity processing power and Oracle RAC technology to architect, design, build and maintain database infrastructure that delivers maximum availability, reliability and performance at a fraction of traditional cost.

On a typical day, weather.com, the Web site for The Weather Channel in Atlanta, serves up between 15 million and 20 million page views. But in September 2004, when back-to-back hurricanes ransacked Florida, the peak traffic on one day more than tripled: over 70 million page views by more than 7 million unique visitors. Read the full success story now.

Marketplace