Intellectual Ventures - Searete - Bill Gates

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	Intellectual Ventures is an invention company...
Invention represents an integral and vital part of the commercial food chain. Invention leads to product design, which in turn leads to product development, manufacturing, marketing, sales, and service. While companies around the world choose to specialize in different parts of the food chain, very few companies do it all and even fewer do it all well. Our personal interests lie in invention. We believe that by focusing on invention, and nothing but invention, we can do it better than the product design and product development companies who are closest to us in the food chain. Product companies are far more worried about their 2-3 year product design and development cycles or transferring products to manufacturing than thinking about the next great invention. And when they do think about inventions, they usually constrain themselves to their relatively narrow focus areas. Our idea of focusing exclusively on invention isn`t new. In the 1800`s the census bureau had a job category of inventor and inventors have brought society some of the many things we depend on – where would we be without the work of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein. At Intellectual Ventures, we are empowering the next generation of Bells and Einsteins by highlighting the business of invention and providing a means for inventors to be fairly compensated for their work.
	We conceive and patent our own inventions in-house...
Intellectual Ventures is a source of innovation for the market. Because we are not constrained by near term product cycles and near term product budgets, we have the freedom to work on technology breakthroughs that may be years away from commercialization. This freedom lets us stretch the bounds of technology and make advancements well before product companies would get to them. With the advancements done for them, however, product companies can incorporate our inventions sooner than they would have otherwise. This is a fun, exciting, and intellectually rewarding part of our business. Even though the commercialization of these inventions may be many years out, we view this as a long term market opportunity and strategy.
	...through a renowned staff of internal and external scientists and engineers.
We work with both internal and external inventors - giving creative scientists and engineers a professional and commercial outlet for their innovation. We believe that giving inventors a way to make a living purely on invention fuels invention which advances technology and ultimately advances society. In the past, being an inventor was an accepted profession and was even included as a job category on the census. People like Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, made a life of invention. Today, people who would like to be inventors are typically forced to work on pure theoretical research or near term product advancements, or become experts in other things like: writing research grants, building start-up companies, working in corporate organizations. By funding invention, we provide a new outlet and opportunity for the inventive geniuses of our generation.
	We also acquire and license patented inventions from other inventors around the world.
Like most companies, our growth stems from internal efforts as well as acquisitions and partnering arrangements. We develop inventions internally and we buy them or license them from external inventors. This is similar to product companies who add product lines through acquisitions or OEM relationships and marketing companies who acquire and combine other channels of distribution. Through acquisitions and partnering, we can create more comprehensive portfolios of inventions. A broader portfolio benefits potential clients by providing more inventions from a single source, and it benefits inventors by giving them a greater chance of commercial success by being part of a more comprehensive offering.
	Our network of invention sources includes: large and small businesses, governments, academia, and individual inventors.
Our acquisition and partnering model has been embraced by a wide range of organizations (large and small, private and public, commercial and not-for-profits, academic and research institutions) and individuals. For some, they view working with Intellectual Ventures as a way to commercialize their R&D efforts. For others, they look at it as a way to fund additional R&D and ongoing patenting efforts. Regardless of the purpose, they are pleased that we are developing a market for inventions and a commercial outlet for their inventive efforts.
	These inventions span a diverse range of technologies including: software, semiconductors, wireless, consumer electronics, networking, lasers, biotechnology, and medical devices.
We are focused on a wide range of technologies which represent our beliefs of where technology is headed. Some of these technologies are near term and others are much further out. By focusing on invention rather than product development, we have the freedom to work with 5-10 year (or even 20 year) time horizons rather than 2-3 years.
	Our current focus is on developing our invention portfolio. Over time, we intend to market our portfolio on a broad and non-exclusive basis through a variety of channels including spin-out companies.

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