Those patents are in areas as diverse as Third Generation Partnership Projects, 3G itself, Wavelength-Division Multiplexing, Synchronous Digital Hierarchy, Point to Multipoint via Optics, Synchronous Optical NETworking, Building Intelligence for traditional PSTN services, ADSL and Asynchronous Transfer Mode.
They say that happy and long-lasting marriages start off with a meeting of the minds, a phenomenon that’s illustrated with a brief peek at the two companies.
In 1880, Alexander Graham Bell’s company, after an agreement, was renamed the American Bell Telephone Company. In 1899, the American Telephone & Telegraph Company bought ABTC’s assets.
In 1925, AT&T created a hardcore Research and Development setup called the Bell Telephone Laboratories, which was split up in 1984 to form Bell Communications Research (News - Alert), which was then taken over by Science Applications International Corporation in 1997 to be renamed to its present name – “Telcordia.” It has retained its deep, rich telecommunications rooted R&D culture.
Intellectual Ventures (News - Alert) started in 2000 with one crystal clear goal – to invest in patents. It prefers to stay away from developing new systems and the core teams consist of patent lawyers, all types of technologists, physicists, geologists, and mathematicians. Microsoft, Google, Apple and Sony are some of the companies that allegedly contribute to its funding. It researches and buys inventions and patents.
IV deals in at least 30 different types of technologies such as advanced particle physics, nanotechnology, User Interface designs, hardware and software, to name a few. It has filed for at least 1200 patents.
The agreement with Telcordia (News - Alert) adds significant and relevant patent numbers in the Telecom field, both nationally and internationally. While it injects much needed revenue for Telecordia’s R&D to continue, the understanding is that Telcordia retains complete control.
“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,” said Nathan Myhrvold, chief executive officer of Intellectual Ventures.
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Vivek Naik is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Vivek's articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Michael Dinan
