John Desmarais as an NPE

Bloomberg reports:

Desmarais, 46, in December bought a portfolio of 4,500 patents from Micron Technology Inc., the biggest U.S. maker of computer-memory chips. Today he opens the doors of a new law firm, New York-based Desmarais LLP, which will look for potential infringers of the patents owned by Round Rock Research LLC, his new patent-holding company.

Bloomberg reported repeats an urban legend:

Those companies are sometimes referred to as “trolls,” a phrase coined by a former Intel Corp. executive. The largest nonpracticing entity is Intellectual Ventures Management LLC, started by a former Microsoft Corp. executive, with from 10,000 to 15,000 groups of patents, according to PatentFreedom. No Detkin did not coin, or first use, the word troll in this context.

Of Round Rock:


“In addition to crossing the barrier from the defense side to the plaintiff side, he’s firmly committed himself on the side of nonpracticing entity, which is attracting attention,” William F. Lee, an intellectual-property litigator and co- managing partner of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP, said of Desmarais. “The question of whether allowing nonpracticing entities to litigate is promoting innovation or taxing innovation is a big question.”
Desmarais said he bought more than 800 patents on chipmaking technology, as well as patents on photo imaging, telecommunications and search engine technology, plus the largest single cluster of radio frequency identification patents.
Round Rock, based in Mount Kisco, New York, is named for a formation near the beach in Madison, Connecticut, where Desmarais, who is married with two teenage children, has a vacation home. His 14-year-old daughter designed the company’s logo and his business card.

**UPDATE. Another Detkin fantasy:

within The Privateer IP Business Model: If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them!:

Those that practice this business model are often called (rightly or wrongly) “patent trolls.” This term was coined by Peter Detkin, then a VP and Assistant General Counsel of Intel. Mr. Detkin – who interestingly enough is now a founder and vice-chairman of Intellectual Ventures – defined the term “patent troll” as “somebody who tries to make a lot of money off a patent that they are not practicing and have no intention of practicing and in most cases never practiced.”