These new IV urban legends come to us in a new paper published by the Stanford Technology Law Review. In the paper, The Giants Among Us, Tom Ewing and Robin Feldman put on their sleuth hats and tried to figure out exactly what Intellectual Ventures owns, how they do business, and what their impact on the marketplace really is. Their paper tries to put some facts behind the legend but things still remain very opaque. It's a very interesting read.
Personally I liked the discussion that IV uses over 1,200 shell companies to execute their business plan. Not bad for the revenue for the States in which they organize their companies. Nevada seemed to look good for a while. Texas is good too for obvious reasons. But when the patent cognoscenti are freaking out about shell companies, I feel compelled to point out that there isn't a real estate development company that doesn't use the same business model to buy and sell property assets, form ventures, separate risk on big projects.
I'm heading out to grab a latte and absorb this latest report. It will be interesting to see what new information comes from this latest effort.
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