Intellectual Ventures is a technology firm near Seattle with an unusual mandate. I.V.’s main
business is acquiring and licensing out high-tech patents, but it also runs an old-fashioned invention
shop. Some inventions originate in-house while others are dreamed up in some garage on the other
side of the world. The ideas range from a new breed of nuclear reactor to a superinsulated, portable
storage unit that can deliver perishable vaccines to sub-Saharan Africa.