Watch out Nathan Myhrvold, your business model may face threats from Halliburton.

Huh? Let us explain. Myhvold, perhaps the most written-about Law Blog subject who doesn't own a law degree, is the former chief technology officer for Microsoft who's quietly amassed a trove of 20,000-plus patents and patent applications. His firm, Intellectual Ventures, is using its clout to press tech giants into costly patent-licensing deals -- making it, in other words, one of the world's largest patent trolls.

Now,...