Nathan Myhrvold's company Intellectual Ventures is trying to create a capital market for patents, inventions and intellectual property, one that would use the venture capital and private equity markets as a model. Is Myhrvold's brave new world of investment firms trading the rights to a better mousetrap feasible, or even ethical?
Intellectual Ventures -- most recently seen unveiling a mosquito
death ray at
the TED conference -- already owns more than 30,000 patents. Its
eclectic approach matches the diverse interests of its founder, whom the
New York Times called "the
ultimate polymath":
"He earned his Ph.D. in
physics from Princeton and did postdoctorate research on quantum field
theory under Stephen
Hawking, before founding a start-up that Microsoft acquired.
"He is an accomplished French chef, who has also won a national barbecue contest in Tennessee. He is an avid wildlife photographer, and he has dabbled in paleontology, working on research projects digging for dinosaur remains in the Rockies."
To read the full, original article click on this link: A New Way to Buy and Sell Ideas - Business - The Atlantic
Author: Ryan
McClafferty
