Bill Gates may no longer be running Microsoft but that doesn’t mean he can’t help his company out in his spare time. Ars Technica reports that the Microsoft cofounder is helping Intellectual Ventures, a patent-holding firm that has in the past sued the Google-owned Motorola, acquire more patents and is listed as a co-inventor on 93 patent applications filed by the firm since 2008. Intellectual Ventures, which was cofounded by former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold, has around 70,000 patents in its portfolio even though it doesn’t make any products of its own. Indeed, the firm itself told Ars that its mission was not to make products but to “invest in ideas themselves and make them available to other companies” for a licensing fee.

Prior to joining BGR as News Editor, Brad Reed spent five years covering the wireless industry for Network World. His first smartphone was a BlackBerry but he has since become a loyal Android user.