Intellectual Ventures

Intellectual Ventures is an American private equity company that centers on the development and licensing of intellectual property. Intellectual Ventures is one of the top-five owners of U.S. patents, as of 2011. Its business model focuses on buying patents and aggregating those patents into a large patent portfolio and licensing these patents to third parties or seeking legal damages against third parties it claims are infringing the patents. The company has been described as the country's largest and most notorious patent trolling company, the ultimate patent troll, and the most hated company in tech.

In 2009, the firm launched a prototyping and research laboratory, Intellectual Ventures Lab, which attracted media controversy when the book SuperFreakonomics described its ideas for reducing global climate change. The firm formerly claimed to also collaborate on humanitarian projects through its Global Good program.