When Patents Attack is a wonderful piece of radio reporting digging into the murky world of patents, trolls and innovation. In particular, the two reporters highlight the business practices of Intellectual Ventures, a company I wrote about recently and which does not come across at all well in this piece. After much cajoling, Peter Detkin, co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, describes a “backend arrangement” with firms like Oasis Research, a Texas-based non-company that apparently exists solely to sue people for patent infringements. Detkin argues that the relationship between IV and such companies is merely business; they have no say over who gets sued for how much or when, and oftentimes they don’t like the aggressive litigation–but what can they do? This is neat, nasty logic, a case of Intellectual Ventures trying to smell of roses while standing neck deep in ordure. Listening to the piece, it’s hard not to wonder what might happen if the bright minds seemingly so intent on exploiting the letter of the law actually focused on something that might benefit the world at large. Stories like this remind us how unlikely that is ever to happen.
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