Patent owner Intellectual Ventures cannot present key damages evidence in a lawsuit against chipmaker Xilinx, a U.S. judge has ruled, which could force an end to the bitter case between IV and one of its investors shortly before trial. The ruling against IV comes in the midst of a heated debate over whether it is too easy for patent owners to extract large royalty payments, and whether patent buying firms spur or stifle innovation.Created in 2000, Intellectual Ventures has raised about $6 billion and acquired 70,000 patents and other intellectual property assets. IV is assembling a new patent acquisition fund with investors including Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp , while Apple Inc and Intel Corp declined to participate.Advocates for patent reform point to the Xilinx litigation as a crucial source of information about the way patent aggregators like IV operate. For instance, the case forced IV in 2011 to disclose its full investor list, which fueled examination of its business model and public discussion, said Robin Feldman, a University of California Hastings College of the Law professor who has studied IV."If you were to ask me to pick a key moment in the patent reform debate, that would be on my list," Feldman said.
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