5 ms·

Why would IV bribe them? In fact, why would a patent troll care about PR at all? Does a good reputation help in court? I'm also going to invoke Hanlon's razor,

• bryanlarsen 16y ago
  IV cares a great deal about its reputation, and have gone to great lengths to avoid the label of "patent troll". This story is remarkable because it's the first time that IV has actually directly filed a lawsuit rather than going through intermediaries to avoid sullying their own name. They've also spent a large amount of money on lobbyists. Compared to that expense, bribing the superfreakonomics would be cheap and effective. I doubt it was a direct bribe, rather an indirect bribe (wining & dining & all expenses paid vacation to "visit" them).
• chc 16y ago
  You'd think that, but Intellectual Ventures clearly does care if you ever read the stuff that comes out of the company. Google up some of their previous articles and you'll see their execs lauding all the amazing scientists they've employed. If I had to guess, I'd say they're betting that patent trolling will eventually be recognized for the predatory practice that it is and banned — because although their behavior is hard to distinguish from a common troll, they work hard at PR to make themselves look like the wunderkind offspring of IBM and Microsoft's research labs.
• JoachimSchipper 16y ago
  I think, but this is a wild guess, that they want to keep a good reputation because of the effect it has on (private) inventors: would you rather sell to Bell Labs or Trolls Inc.?