An Industry Crisis Are You Ready With Your Check Book?

[Lee]

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — Acacia Patent Acquisition, a subsidiary of the Acacia Research Corp. has acquired rights to patents related to electronic message advertising.

Its patented technology “generally relates to the software, methods and systems used to insert, transmit and display background images and graphics,” according to Acacia. The technology is primarily featured in instant messaging skins and on email backgrounds.

Acacia has been involved in numerous overly broad patent claims in recent years, and this patent seems to fall in line of the company’s modus operandi of registering patents that are an “inflated interpretation of whatever patent they have acquired,” said Brandon Shalton, operator of FightThePatent.com, a site devoted to exposing patent abuse.

“Acacia is the poster child for patent reform,” Shalton told XBIZ. “The patent system was intended to protect smaller companies and inventors from being overrun by larger companies, but the reality is that larger companies are the ones massively filing patents and have the war chest to litigate even inflated or inaccurately-claimed patents.”

More than a dozen adult companies are still involved in infringement litigation with Acacia over the company’s claim to hold the patent to Digital Media Transmission. Acacia claims that its DMT patents cover nearly all forms of digital media transmission, including downloaded and streamed content.

Joint Defense Group, a coalition of adult companies working to combat the patent infringement claims that Acacia Technologies Group is leveling against the adult entertainment industry, includes ClubJenna, Cybernet Ventures Inc., Lightspeed, VS Media and Homegrown Video.

“Many companies feel it’s cheaper to just license than to defend themselves because when you add up the numbers, it makes more sense,” Shalton said. “Companies like Acacia then take the number of signees forward to show proof that the patent must be valid. Fortunately, patent reform is becoming less of an urban myth with organizations like the Coalition for Patent Reform and PubPat in addressing patent abuse.”

Acacia now controls 64 patent portfolios.

http://www.xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=22712

Im waiting for the FSC to jump on this bandwagon, theres got to be a couple of hundred thousand dollars in 'donations' for them in this if they play their cards right

I just dont understand why Acacia even considered going after the adult industry, they must have thought we'd just fold when they announced their DMT patent... How wrong they were LOL

Regards,

Lee

[basschick]

it's not just adult - google advertises electronically. acacia can make many millions in licensing from very large companies who would consider going to court more expensive than just signing.

[Squirt]

I totally forgot about Acacia. I can't believe people in adult are still in court proceedings with them. I remember when I researched and found the Pandora Project by the team at IBM. Everyone was happy and saw it as prior art that defeats their patent. I thought that was that.

I wonder if people are still paying them their licensing fees too?

[Matt 26z]

Looks like they are going to target AOL, MSN and Yahoo with this one. I wish I had bought into them a year and a half ago. They have tripled in that time.

[Squirt]

Looks like they are going to target AOL, MSN and Yahoo with this one. I wish I had bought into them a year and a half ago. They have tripled in that time.

Acacias stock has tripled since then?

[darling]

As a programmer myself I am always angered when software patents are issued.

The Amazon.com "one click" order is an obvious thing to add to a website, but still amazon has a patent to it!

There is a great website here about it:
http://www.paulgraham.com/softwarepatents.html

I wonder if someone has patented adding photos to a website? If not I think I will be writing an patent application. It will be accepted for sure, since almost all software patents applied for, no matter how silly, get approved.

[Matt 26z]

Acacias stock has tripled since then?

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=ACTG&t=2y

[Lee]

Looks like they are going to target AOL, MSN and Yahoo with this one. I wish I had bought into them a year and a half ago. They have tripled in that time.

Same here.

Both Gary and i thought about investing heavily in Acacia when they first came on the scene but decided against it. Hindsight as they say, is 20/20.

Regards,

Lee