Smartphones 211 The biggest mystery surrounded the identity of those behind Lodsys and MacroSolve. Lodsys acquired its patents from Intellectual Ventures, a company set up by former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold with the sole purpose of acquiring patents and exploiting them; it had won millions of dollars in venture capital funding on the basis that it could exploit its patent portfolio. In that case, though, why had it transferred the title for exploitable patents to what looked like (in Lodsys's case) a one-man band? Why would a well-funded company, set up to exploit patents, pass valuable patents to what looked like a start-up? My questions to Intellectual Ventures about any financial or other relationships with Lodsys were politely answered: When it makes sense for our business we sell patents ­ either to companies who can use them for defensive purposes or to buyers who monetize them. Sometimes based on the structure of the sale we have a financial interest in the outcome of those efforts, but we never have control over, or are involved in, the path to monetization that these