The King of the Trolls Strikes Gold

“Well, this is rather droll. The other day I was writing about
the patent troll to end all trolls, Intellectual Ventures. And now
we have this:

“Patent #7,679,604 — “Method and apparatus for controlling
a computer system” — the broad motion-control patent I’ve
been writing about all week, has passed through a number of hands
over the years. First assigned to ArrayComm in 2006, it was
subsequently handed over to Durham Logistics, a limited liability
company which is itself managed by another obscure Las Vegas LLC
called Memscom. But there’s one more company at the end of that
oblique line of ownership: Intellectual Ventures, an “invention
capital firm” or patent troll, depending on your views on
innovation and intellectual property.

“Why does that matter? Well, because that “method and apparatus”
seems to give its patent holder power over most of the
motion-control devices used in smartphones today. In other words,
it’s a choke-point for one of the most exciting and vibrant areas
of computing around.”

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