[vogonj]

IV is funded by Google, among others.

"Intellectual Ventures was founded in 2000 by Nathan Myhrvold and Edward Jung of Microsoft as a private partnership. It lists Peter Detkin of Intel, and Gregory Gorder of Perkins Coie, a Seattle-based law firm as co-founders. They reportedly have raised over $5 billion from many large companies including Microsoft, Intel, Sony, Nokia, Apple, Google, SAP, Nvidia and eBay, plus investment firms such as Charles River Ventures. Reported statistics indicate over 30,000 purchased patents and applications[3] and over 2000 internally-developed inventions. Licenses to patents are obtained through investment and royalties.[4]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_Ventures#Reference...

You're as sound in your logic as saying that because IV was founded by the author of Modernist Cuisine, it's obvious that the molecular gastronomy movement is responsible for Google's patent troubles.

[wanorris]

Microsoft may well be completely uninvolved, but while the molecular gastronomy movement lacks any motive for involvement, the same cannot be said for Microsoft.

[vogonj]

among other things, Intellectual Ventures filed an amici curiae brief in Microsoft v. I4I, another piece of patent litigation. on behalf of the respondents.

http://www.jdsupra.com/post/documentViewer.aspx?fid=49803802...

Intellectual Ventures has no loyalty to anything but its own inventions.

edit: incidentally, the outcome of Microsoft v. i4i (and the parent lawsuit, i4i v. Microsoft) was an out-of-court settlement where Microsoft paid i4i $300 million, at the hazard of an injunction against selling Office in the United States: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I4i

[nitrogen]

AIUI, licensees of the IV portfolio are listed "investors," so it's not actually the case that IV is "funded" by Google. Google's more of a customer.