Patent Troll Firm Staging Fundraising Effort Finds Burned Bridges

Intellectual Ventures, often considered one of the major patent troll firms, has curtailed its patent buying in the last few months as it seeks to raise capital. The company is attempting to raise $3 billion to add to its cache of 70,000 patents, but many of its earlier backers – including Microsoft, Google, and Apple – have become adversaries battling the firm in court over patent infringement. Intellectual Ventures has set up lobbying efforts in Washington as Congress and the FTC plan to come down on trolls, trying to convince lawmakers that “patent-assertion entities,” their preferred term, benefit inventors, innovators and startups, and that they are being unfairly targeted by major technology companies.