US-based Intellectual Ventures has opened an office in Bangalore.

The $5 billion company reportedly plans to collaborate with IIT Madras and is set to purchase a number of patents from the Indian Institute of Science. Intellectual Ventures currently owns over 20,000 patents in a number of diverse sectors, including lasers and computer chips.

P Ananthakrishnan of IV India confirmed that the firm had "entered into agreements with a number of premier research institutions, universities and companies."

The investment fund, founded by Microsoft's former chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold, has raised capital from individual investors and large companies, including Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, Verizon, Sony and Apple. According to Myhrvold, Intellectual Ventures will be spending $100 million to buy or license patents across Asia. "We believe that over the next 10-20 years, institutes in India could make around $1 billion a year if they can market their inventions," said Myhrvold.

Myhrvold previously told the Wall Street Journal that the world had lots of inventions it didn't know what to do with. "So we go do the classic private equity thing and say, it is worth more in our hands than yours," he explained. X

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