The story I'm familiar with characterizes IV's business model as a way for firms to trade off the volatility of the pay-off for R&D work for a steady stream of

The story I'm familiar with characterizes IV's business model as a way for firms to trade off the volatility of the pay-off for R&D work for a steady stream of recurring payments (or 1 lump sum). Through further analysis of the business model/incentive structure it's then not difficult to see that IV was always destined to become a patent troll. One key issue IV always had was scaling. How could you scale a business based on technical patents without incurring linearly increasing labor costs? Well, you seek out activities that yield the biggest bang for your buck. In other words, opportunistically target companies for a patent troll shakedown.