I just had a thought. What if Myhrvold has realised that the only way that the patent system can be changed is if he brings innovation to a halt completely using Intellectual Ventures. Only he can't tell anyone because he believes that if he does, it will undermine his efforts.
Yes. This is somewhat flippant. Hopefully his motivations aren't relevant and IV still acts as a catalyst for change. The real danger, I suppose, is regulatory capture. I wonder how much lobbying IV does.
1. If Nathan believes that, he's been lying/hiding it from every person in the world, repeatedly
2. IV does a large amount of lobbying, particularly against bills that, for example, asked for patent damages to only be given in the amount the patented part was of the whole.
IE In prior law, you used to be able to get damages as a royalty on the full price of the product, even if the infringed patent was in a 2 cent part of a $20,000 product
IV lobbied heavily against this provision (I don't have an exact figure, but they are now within the top 5 money wise on patent issues and are always present at various conferences/testimony/etc ). Same with things like post-grant reexams, stronger obviousness protections, etc.
Hey, but maybe that's part of the front!
If they didn't lobby against helping the patent system, it would undermine their efforts to help the patent system because then we'd know they weren't genuine.
Sorry, but all these conspiracy theories that Nathan really is trying to be helpful are hilarious. Some people just realize they can make money by exploiting the world, and Nathan is one of them.
Yes. This is somewhat flippant. Hopefully his motivations aren't relevant and IV still acts as a catalyst for change. The real danger, I suppose, is regulatory capture. I wonder how much lobbying IV does.