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Acacia Climbing the Food Chain

Posted by timothy on from the slithering-squelching-oozing dept.

superflex writes "CNet and others have articles today related to a story that appeared here a couple months ago regarding Acacia Media Technologies, who hold several U.S. and international patents that they claim give them exclusive rights to compressed digital media transmission technologies. The previous article, for the lazy among you, was an AskSlashdot about whether the askers' pr0n site should pay license fees to these guys. Seems that since then, they've moved on to some internet radio sites, and are actually getting fees out of them. Their claims haven't been challenged in court yet, but they appear very broad, possibly covering PPV on cable/satellite as well as internet-based streaming. One wonders if they might try going after one of the big boys soon."

4 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Prior art should be ... by torpor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... what, about 100 years ago?

    Morse? Nah, really. Probably not a strong argument for 'compression'.

    Regardless, this is just one more of those 'communication should be free' fish in the barrel which someone ought to just tip over...

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  2. cell by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Digital cellular and PCS are covered by this patent as well. Wonder when Acacia will get to suing them -- and whether they'll be able to dig up examples of prior art.

    Speaking of which, the telcos have been using digital compression for a very long time on their trunk lines; while it wasn't an algorithmic compression method, it did result in less total throughput needed. Would this be considered prior art?

  3. Re:They won't go after the big boys until.. by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The exciting world of legal precedent.

    Perhaps the USPTO needs to establish a department to revoke/make recommendations for revokation of those patents that are overly broad and possibly other qualifications, too.

    --
    That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
  4. Much more on Acacia Research here by MarkRH · · Score: 5, Interesting
    We wrote one of the earliest stories on Acacia Research here, complete with detailed royalty information, interviews with Acacia representatives, and exactly how the online porn industry planned to fight back. We also covered the Virgin Radio license agreement in this story.

    Personally, I feel that there are a wealth of smaller companies that Acacia will be able to sue or otherwise persuade to license their technology. Virgin was also a significant win.