‘You Only Move Twice‘ is the second episode of The Simpsons’ eighth season. It first aired in 1996. The original concept for the episode came from a story idea by Greg Daniels involving Homer getting a new job for an employee-friendly, Silicon Valley type, modern boss (Hank Scorpio voiced by Albert Brooks) who would stand in contrast with Mr. Burns, an authoritarian, 19th century style boss.
Homer’s new boss, despite being friendly and personable, would be a supervillain in the mold of Ernst Stavro Blofeld of the James Bond novels and films. This element was meant to be in the background and Homer would be oblivious to it.
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Hank Scorpio
Patent Monetization
Patent monetization refers to the generation of revenue or the attempt to generate revenue by a person or company by selling or licensing the patents it owns.
The so-called patent trolls—which is a pejorative term—attempt to generate revenue by buying and enforcing patents against one or more alleged infringers in a manner considered by the target or observers as unduly aggressive or opportunistic, often with no intention to further develop, manufacture or market the patented invention. Other persons or companies, which are not regarded as patent trolls, also try to make money from patents on inventions they develop, manufacture or market.
Nathan Myhrvold
Nathan Myhrvold (b. 1959), formerly Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, is co-founder and 40% owner of Intellectual Ventures, a patent portfolio holding company.
Myhrvold, usually with coinventors, holds 17 U.S. patents assigned to Microsoft and has applied for more than 500 patents. In addition, Myhrvold and coinventors hold 115 U.S. patents assigned mostly to The Invention Science Fund I, LLC.
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Intellectual Ventures
Intellectual Ventures is a private company notable for being one of the top-five owners of U.S. patents, as of 2011. Its business model has a focus on buying patents and aggregating them into a large patent portfolio and licensing this ‘IV’ portfolio to companies.
Publicly, it states that a major goal is to assist small inventors against corporations. In practice, the vast majority of IV’s revenue comes from buying patents, aggregating them into a large portfolio and licensing this portfolio to other companies or filing lawsuits for infringement of patents, a controversial practice known as patent trolling.
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Christopher Bathgate
Chris Bathgate is a self-taught metal sculptor working and residing in Baltimore. He has spent the last several years learning how to build and use a variety of metalworking tools. In addition to exploring the finer intricacies of both manual and computer-assisted machining, he also has applied electroplating and heat coloring techniques to his intricate and precise sculptures.
Bathgate’s sculptures are as much about the processes he uses as they are about his imagination. He is represented by Gallery Imperato, located in Baltimore, and a member of Viridian Artists Inc, an artist cooperative in the Chelsea District of New York City.