Myhrvold

Nathan Myhrvold, our local mosquito-zapping, hurricane-stopping, high-tech gourmand and environmental geoengineering geek, offers a broad defense of his company, Bellevue-based Intellectual Ventures, in a Harvard Business Review article today -- disputing the assertion that it's a patent troll and laying out a vision for a concept that he calls "invention capital."

"What we’re really trying to do is create a capital market for inventions akin to the venture capital market that supports start-ups and the private equity market that revitalizes inefficient companies," writes Myhrvold, the former Microsoft technology chief. "Our goal is to make applied research a profitable activity that attracts vastly more private investment than it does today so that the number of inventions generated soars."

The New York Times has simultaneously published a story about Myhrvold, by staffer Steve Lohr, that gets to the heart of the debate over Myhrvold and his company. As the NYT story explains ...

Admirers of Mr. Myhrvold, the scientist who led Microsoft's technology development in the 1990s, see an innovator seeking to elevate the economic role and financial rewards for inventors whose patented ideas are often used without compensation by big technology companies. His detractors see a cynical operator deploying his bulging patent trove as a powerful bargaining chip, along with the implied threat of costly litigation, to prod high-tech companies to pay him lucrative fees. They call his company “Intellectual Vultures.”

White hat or black hat, Intellectual Ventures is growing rapidly and becoming a major force in the marketplace for intellectual capital. Its rise comes as Congress is considering legislation, championed by large technology companies, that would make it more difficult for patent holders to win large damage awards in court — changes that Mr. Myhrvold has opposed in Congressional testimony and that his company has lobbied against.

For all the talk about potential patent litigation, the public-relations initiative reflected by the stories makes it clear that Myhrvold knows he'll need to win support for his vision in the court of public opinion. Both pieces are worth reading, although the full Harvard Business Review article requires a subscription. Note: The full version is available here without a subscription for a limited time.

Previously: Myhrvold on penguin poop and global warming