Intellectual Ventures founder Nathan Myhrvold took U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell and other bigwigs on a tour of his new invention lab in Bellevue today. Housed in a former Harley Davidson service center, the nondescript warehouse boasts an an eclectic array of industrial and scientific equipment, a closet full of mosquitoes, even a tricked-out restaurant-style kitchen.

Despite concerns that Intellectual Ventures is using its vast patent pile -- 27,000 and counting -- to make tech companies pay hefty license fees, Myhrvold talked up the economic benefits of his firm's in-house invention efforts. "We're going to try to bring this region to the cutting edge" and "stimulate the economy here and elsewhere," he said.

Cantwell agreed. "It's incredible to have this lab in Washington state," she said, after touring the facility with Myhrvold followed by a gaggle of media. "We're going to continue to innovate and that means jobs."

Intellectual Ventures does appear to be in growth mode. The firm, which last year opened five offices in Asia, says it now employs some 550 people and is closing in on the 600 mark. In addition to the 27,000-square foot invention lab in Bellevue, the company has secured an 8,000-square-foot space nearby in what used to be a furniture store, to house a computing cluster.

Intellectual Ventures acquires the vast majority of its patents from companies, universities and individual inventors, though Myhrvold is trying to put more focus on the firm's self-generated inventions coming out of the lab and from high-powered brainstorming sessions involving the likes of Bill Gates and other titans of technology and science.

"We're trying to expand our activities while the rest of the world is retrenching," Myhrvold told Cantwell, after pointing out that the lab's conference room -- site of those brainstorming sessions -- got its table and chairs from a bankruptcy auction.

Gates -- who was once Myhrvold's boss at Microsoft -- is a personal investor in the Invention Science Fund managed by Intellectual Ventures (Note: Gates' role clarified since last post). The Intellectual Ventures lab is working on a variety of malaria-related projects that could benefit the Gates Foundation's efforts to combat disease, including a Star Wars-style project to shoot down mosquitoes with laser beams.

Myhrvold also talked up his firm's project, called TerraPower, to develop a new type of nuclear reactor that runs primarily on unenriched uranium or depleted uranium. He also showed Cantwell the restaurant-style kitchen in the lab, staffed by chefs who are helping him write a science-oriented cookbook. Cantwell sampled a "liquid nitrogen poached" meringue on a stick.

Is the lab simply Myhrvold's play space to dabble with science, and a public relations showpiece? Intellectual Ventures' business model has stirred ire in the tech industry, with some claiming it's a giant patent troll that extracts license payments from companies. Myhrvold has in the past said litigation isn't part of his plan, though he hasn't entirely ruled it out.

It's not clear yet if Intellectual Ventures' invention efforts will generate spinout companies, but judging by the collection of venture capitalists at the lab event today, there's at least some interest in that possibility. The guest list included Bob Nelson from Arch Venture Partners, Steve Arnold and Brian Chee of Polaris, Bill McAleer and Geoff Entress of Voyager Capital, and Chuck Hirsch of Madrona Venture Group, as well as Linden Rhoads and Janis Machala of University of Washington TechTransfer.

Here are some images of the lab and tour: