Comment Acacia: Round Three (Score 1) 154
Acacia Research first came out with Round One of their Patent Licensing schemes with the V-Chip patent.
They managed to convince TV manufacturing companies to the tune of $25M to license their patent. It wasn't until Sony decided to battle them in court, and won, that the V-Chip patent licensing spree came to an end. While the V-Chip patent has since expired (and defeated by Sony with a non-infringement verdict), Acacia is still appealing for prior infringements on other TV manufactuers.
Round 2 is going on right now with the DMT patent that claims the ownership to downloading of audio/video from the web. The bogusness of this patent is being tracked (along with other patent abuse cases) at my website of http://www.FightThePatent.com
The DMT Patent suffered a big loss due to the Markman Order, where the judge found many of the claims to be indefinite, and suggested to the current adult entertainment defendants to file for summmary judgement (more info on the website).
Round 3 is now with this hotspot patent that was purchased from Lodgenet (one of Acacia's early DMT licensees - do unto others as they have done to you).
The tactics used to solicit liceneses in DMT patent look to be the same as with this one. Talking about how they have $30M in the bank to litigate, etc.
The HotSpot patent is not as broadly targetted as the DMT patent, where the patent infringement is on a much fewer set of companies.
While this HotSpot patent does not affect most internet users, it does burden the companies that we might use, that are claimed to be infringing.
Your prior art posts and finds will be greatly appreciated by the companies who have to face the decision of fighting the patent or paying the license.
If the patent claims are bogus, in that there is prior art, then this Round 3 patent is another example of patent abuse, taken on by a company that has demonstrated consistent tactics of wielding an interpretted patent to intimidate businesses to cave.
They managed to convince TV manufacturing companies to the tune of $25M to license their patent. It wasn't until Sony decided to battle them in court, and won, that the V-Chip patent licensing spree came to an end. While the V-Chip patent has since expired (and defeated by Sony with a non-infringement verdict), Acacia is still appealing for prior infringements on other TV manufactuers.
Round 2 is going on right now with the DMT patent that claims the ownership to downloading of audio/video from the web. The bogusness of this patent is being tracked (along with other patent abuse cases) at my website of http://www.FightThePatent.com
The DMT Patent suffered a big loss due to the Markman Order, where the judge found many of the claims to be indefinite, and suggested to the current adult entertainment defendants to file for summmary judgement (more info on the website).
Round 3 is now with this hotspot patent that was purchased from Lodgenet (one of Acacia's early DMT licensees - do unto others as they have done to you).
The tactics used to solicit liceneses in DMT patent look to be the same as with this one. Talking about how they have $30M in the bank to litigate, etc.
The HotSpot patent is not as broadly targetted as the DMT patent, where the patent infringement is on a much fewer set of companies.
While this HotSpot patent does not affect most internet users, it does burden the companies that we might use, that are claimed to be infringing.
Your prior art posts and finds will be greatly appreciated by the companies who have to face the decision of fighting the patent or paying the license.
If the patent claims are bogus, in that there is prior art, then this Round 3 patent is another example of patent abuse, taken on by a company that has demonstrated consistent tactics of wielding an interpretted patent to intimidate businesses to cave.
