Intellectual Property Ventures is a partnership Microsoft created following the success of Inrix, a company started by former Microsoft and Expedia employees that will develop vehicle traffic prediction technology. Inrix bought an exclusive license for the intellectual property from Microsoft last month.
Among the 20 technologies up for grabs are a planned Microsoft blogging community called Wallop, a real-time face detection and tracking suite and counterfeit-resistant labels. These were all projects shepherded by Microsoft Research in service to, independent of, or as a by-product of the development of front-shelf technology.
"Microsoft Research is a pretty big organization. They do a lot of good work,” said Matt Rosoff, analyst for Directions on Microsoft. “[But] frankly some of the things they do are too far ahead or just don't fit into other corporate priorities,"
Microsoft said that eventually it will make more products available for similar licensing deals.
“We’re impressed by the breadth of technologies that IP Ventures has already made available,” said Insight Venture Partners managing director Scott Maxwell. “Emerging growth companies and entrepreneurs in our network are excited about these technologies. We value the opportunity to be part of this program and are looking forward to working with Microsoft on more technologies in the future.”
