IV Insights Blog

Kymeta Corporation, Intellectual Ventures’ second spin-out company, has been recognized by CNBC’s Squawk Box program as one of the fifty most disruptive private, venture-backed companies. Kymeta and the other companies on the list were selected due to the threat that they pose to the status quo across their industry, their potential for hyper growth, ability to replace incumbents, and other factors. 

Kymeta continues to build momentum as they prepare to commercialize the world’s first metamaterials-based antenna technology. This recent recognition comes on the heels of Kymeta’s recent partnership with Inmarsat to develop antennas that will provide business jets with access to in-flight broadband. Kymeta was also recognized earlier this year by MIT Technology Review as one of 2013’s 50 Most Disruptive Companies.

The metamaterials-based antenna technology that earned Kymeta a spot on the disruptive companies list was invented by Intellectual Ventures inventors and was developed at IV Lab before the company spun out in August 2012.

Join us in congratulating Kymeta for their ongoing accomplishments! You can read more about their work here.

Humans have been able to cross the oceans, fly around the world, and now sing David Bowie covers in space. These accomplishments and so many more can be laid at the doorstep of inventors. It is because of them that there is no final frontier because there will always be the opportunity to improve what we have and to search for what’s next.   

Recently, I have been interviewing inventors for IV’s Project Eureka!, a campaign focused on educating and inspiring inventors. Through these interviews I noticed a common theme. Regardless of the type of inventions, or the focus of the inventor, each person I’ve interviewed seems to regard the world through a lens that is constantly seeking things that can be improved, even just a little bit. The inventors who have already bettered the world are an inspiration, but for me it is the younger generation, the next crop of inventors that really has me in awe. 

In honor of National Inventors Month, we have put together a compilation of incredible young inventors who have already begun inventing progress and finding their own Eureka! moments. Take a moment to be impressed by what these young people have already accomplished.

If you know of other young inventors who should be added to our list, please tell us on facebook.

Thomas Edison said, “During all those years of experimentation and research, I never once made a discovery. All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention, pure and simple.” 

We often talk about complex inventions that push the boundaries of what we’ve thought possible—tools to fight malaria, zero-emission energy, 3D printing. But let’s not forget that, when acted upon, basic concepts can become new inventions that have a profound impact on our lives. The telephone was inspired by a desire to communicate with each other. A bird’s wing inspired flying machines. Mary Anderson, inventor of the windshield wiper, simply wanted to see through her window on a rainy day.

In celebration of National Inventors Month, we’ve created a poster series that honors brilliant inventions in their minimalist forms. 

The invention marketplace relies heavily on innovation—in fact, it’s encompassed in innovation. Intellectual Ventures not only supports innovation, we participate in it and celebrate its successes.

For this month’s News You Can Use, we’ve gathered headlines about ways to inspire innovation:

• Several Forbes contributors have recently touched on the topic of innovation. Janie Curtis wrote The Barriers to Innovation, And How to Break Through. The article discusses the role innovation plays to the health of the U.S.’s economy, and it defines what may be hindering U.S. companies from competing in the global environment. Curtis writes that while U.S. companies place a high priority on innovation, it often ends up being manifested in small tweaks on current products rather than significant, life-changing innovations. She recommends a few tweaks in how we go about innovating to surge the country forward.

Earlier this week, we shed new light on just how much C-suite executives value patents as a source of innovation that should be protected. The fact that these views exist at the highest levels of companies is a testament to the growth of the invention marketplace. It’s important to remember, though, that the longevity of this market also hinges on another group—inventors. After all, a patent is more than just a legal document or a strategic business asset. It represents the hard work and ingenuity of actual inventors.

As a company built on invention, we take special pride in supporting fellow inventors not only as a part of our core business, but also through our various humanitarian and philanthropic activities. We support STEM education organizations that provide the building blocks for modern invention, we share our knowledge and expertise with aspiring inventors, and we lead by example by demonstrating the tremendous potential of inventions to solve problems. In honor of National Inventors Month in the U.S., we’re giving these efforts a new platform and focus under what we call Project Eureka!.

Project Eureka! is IV’s commitment to encouraging future generations of inventors. From the middle school student interested in science to the aspiring garage inventor, we hope the stories and information shared via Project Eureka! will give them the knowledge and inspiration to pursue their own “Eureka!” moment. This effort is just underway, but you can follow its progress at eureka.intven.com as we put a spotlight on the education, people, and potential that spark invention.

Moving forward, Project Eureka! will serve as a platform for us to explore ways beyond our normal business operations to encourage a vibrant inventor community for generations to come. Our focus remains on delivering value to our customers and returning a profit for our investors, but we can’t do that without inventors. From eureka to asset to economic value, Intellectual Ventures is committed to supporting the entire invention marketplace.

Visit the Project Eureka! website.

For years, Intellectual Ventures has been talking to CEOs, CFOs, and CTOs about the value of intellectual property. Contrary to what some others might suggest, we believe the issue being discussed in America’s boardrooms—in companies of all sizes and across industries—is not whether patents matter, but how they matter.    

In our Market Research on Patent Attitudes study, the majority of the C-suite executives we surveyed believe patents are good for innovation; they believe patent rights should be respected; they believe people should pay a license fee to use technology that is patented. Yet, they don’t fully recognize how patents apply to them.

And who can blame them? The headlines about the intellectual property industry are dominated by consumer technology company patent rankings or stories about billion dollar patent transactions. Counter to the current narrative, those storylines don’t apply to the majority of American businesses who are just focused on getting through the next quarter or funding round. 

Dear Inventor, today is World IP Day and we want to say thank you. Thank you to the inventors for identifying a problem, solving it, and producing a better outcome. Thank you for taking the time to invent something new. We know it wasn’t easy and it took many tries, but you did it and it was worth it. And, thank you for following the steps necessary to get your idea, your solution patented so that the world can recognize the value of all your hard work. This is no simple task. We know. 

World IP Day serves as the catalyst to spark genuine discussions about the importance of intellectual property, and it’s a reminder that there is a person behind every patent. Or, as we like to think, patents are people too.

We look forward to celebrating National Inventors Month with you in May where we can look to the future of invention, but for today, take some time to pat yourself on the back and reflect on all that you’ve done to fuel progress in society.

You deserve it.

Sincerely,

Intellectual Ventures

As a company founded on the principal that invention is an asset class of its own, we noted with great interest that for the first time, the Bureau of Economic Analysis for the U.S. Department of Commerce will be including the value of American companies’ R&D spending and intellectual property to its calculation of gross domestic product (GDP). 

Judging by the Preview of the Comprehensive Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts, this development will help to better capture the value of intangible assets and American innovation. Various sources like Alliance Bernstein and the Financial Times have already started to put this revised calculation into context, projecting a 3% increase to the United States’ total GDP.

Until then, we eagerly await the bureau’s final report later this year. 

“As we say, in FIRST, every student can go pro!” Geoff Deane, vice president of Intellectual Ventures Lab and longtime volunteer for Washington FIRST Robotics understands why the moment a student combines smarts and skill to turn a concept into a product is a moment they’ll remember forever.    

“I joined the Washington FIRST board because the four levels of robotics programs, starting in elementary school and going through high school, are the coolest ways I’ve seen of connecting kids to science and technology in a hands-on way,” Geoff said.

This year, through FIRST programing, 8,000 youth in Washington state made the connection between STEM coursework and STEM career possibilities. Dozens of men and women from IV were proud to volunteer, and they happily gave countless joules of their own energy to guide student-run teams as they designed and built Frisbee™-flinging robots with the mechanical prowess and trademark FIRST flair to compete in the “Ultimate Ascent” Washington regional competitions.

This week, Intellectual Ventures (IV) and one of Europe’s leading food-production companies announced the establishment of a jointly-owned company in Finland, called Benemilk Oy. In the new venture, our Invention Development Fund will partner with Raisio to develop and market new inventions and technologies that make milk production safer, more efficient and more environmentally responsible. I’m excited about the opportunity to team our expertise and 4,000-strong inventor network with a partner who can help us advance agricultural practices and address the global problem of ensuring food sufficiency.

The world continues to face a series of challenges related to large-scale food production, including food safety, quality, efficiency and environmental impact. These challenges persist despite the fact that nutritional science itself is undergoing a renaissance of sorts. We’ve seen crises in the agricultural supply chain in places as diverse as Kenya and China. In response, the United Nations has formed a high-level task force on global food security. But even institutions as notable as the UN are limited in their ability to drive innovation. IV’s worldwide ecosystem of inventors, research organizations and industry partners uniquely positions us to solve big problems like these. We can take the recent breakthroughs in nutritional science and make them count in the real world.

The Benemilk® invention is one of the most promising approaches we have seen to improving food production. It’s a cattle-feed supplement that increases the protein content of milk while reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from cows’ digestive systems. Research shows it also increases daily milk yield by more than two quarts per cow and raises feed efficiency by more than 10%. And it makes for happier cows—they prefer the Benemilk® feed over ordinary feed—as well as happier farmers, since a Benemilk®-fed cow produces on average one more calf during its breeding lifetime.