Intellectual Ventures, Telcordia Team Up

According to TMCnet.com, Intellectual Ventures and Telcordia Technologies have agreed to a partnership that will allow Intellectual Ventures to license and access over 500 telecommunications patents.  These patents will include Wavelength-Division Multiplexing, Synchonous Digital Hierarchy, Point to Multipoint via Optics, Synchronous optical NETworking, and Building Intelligence for traditional PSTN services.

Started in 2000, Intellectual Ventures’ goal has been to invest in patents.  Currently, they are involved in at least 30 different types of technologies, and they have filed for at least 1200 patents.  Intellectual Ventures’ core team consists of patent lawyers, technologists, physicists, geologists, and mathematicians.  Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Sony all allegedly contribute to its funding.

Although financial terms were not disclosed, the agreement adds significant and relevant patent numbers to Intellectual Ventures’ telecommunications field.  At the same time, Telcordia receives capital to fund its R&D lab.  Regarding the agreement, Nathan Myhrvold, the CEO of Intellectual Ventures, said the following:

We need new inventions to stimulate the economy and create new opportunities for growth.  Telcordia is taking  a leadership role here by extending the use and reach of its impressive patent portfolio, and Intellectual Ventures is positioned to supply the long-term capital to allow for this future growth and job creation.

Intellectual Ventures Acquires Chip Patents

Intellectual Ventures has acquired the patent portfolio of Transmeta, a supplier of low-power Intel-compatible x86 processors.  As reported by Cnet News, Intellectual Ventures has picked up 140 U.S. patents in addition to other pending patent applications that are currently owned by Transmeta.

Transmeta was recently restructured in 2007, and the former chipmaker changed to an intellectual property company that sued others for patent infringement.  But last November, Transmeta was sold for $255.6 million in cash to Novafora.  The company was interested in Transmeta’s video processing chips, and under the terms of the recent deal with Intellectual Ventures, Novafora will be able to continue to improve its own proprietary designs by utilizing Transmeta technologies.  At the same time, Intellectual Ventures will provide other companies with access to Transmeta’s former patent rights under non-exclusive licensing terms.

Paul Reidy, the vice president of semiconductor licensing at Intellectual Ventures, said “These (patent) additions cover inventions in high-performance, low power, and embedded processors.”