Malaria is no excuse for patent trolling, Mr. Myhrvold
Nathan Myhrvold, CEO of Intellectual Ventures, took issue with GigaOM this week after we expressed skepticism about his company's plans to hire a “VP of Global Good.” — In an interview with tech site Geekwire, Myhrvold said …
Context & Ripple Effects
Intellectual Ventures entered the mobile patent fight in 2011 with its lawsuit against Motorola Mobility, while Nathan Myhrvold's pro-patent case had already drawn pointed criticism in earlier coverage of his patent arguments. That record makes the proposed VP of Global Good more than a staffing decision: it tests whether the company can separate a public-benefit mission from the reputation created by its patent-enforcement strategy.
First-order effects
- Intellectual Ventures must defend its Global Good hire as credible alongside GigaOM's criticism of the company's patent-trolling conduct, and Myhrvold has publicly taken on that challenge.
Second-order effects
- The prospective Global Good leader inherits a role whose public mandate will be judged against Intellectual Ventures' patent litigation and Myhrvold's defense of its patent model.
Third-order effects
- If patent-assertion companies increasingly pair social-impact initiatives with aggressive enforcement, reputation management becomes an operational constraint on how those initiatives are received.
The trend: Patent-holding companies are facing greater pressure to reconcile public-interest positioning with the commercial tactics used to monetize their portfolios.