Recent news in Acacia patent battle
Patenting Air or Protecting Property? The Washington Post covers the Acacia patent battle, as the company expands its licensing claims beyond the porn industry.
Acacia Research Corp. started by targeting dozens of adult entertainment companies, demanding royalties of as much as 4 percent of their revenue from audio and video streaming. Now the firm is seeking fees from universities that use Web video for remote learning, from companies that serve up movies to hotel rooms, from cable and satellite providers, and from major streaming-media companies such as RealNetworks Inc. and America Online Inc.
The article isn't just about the Acacia battle. After hooking readers with the porno angle upfront, it delves into the broader problem of questionable information technology patents stifling innovation.
The (Portland, Oregon) Business Journal looks at how universities are responding to Acacia's demands. The first educational institution to sign with Acacia was the distance learning company 24/7 University. Brandon Shalton at Fight the Patent talks to the CEO of 24/7 University about that decision.
I called the CEO of the company and his story underscored the point that businesses are faced with making business decisions and the decision to fight the patent claims is grossly skewed over the cost of licensing.
In my conversation, he mentioned that he did do his research, he has been reading the message boards and articles (and my website), but the issue of the patent's validity is not the major issue for him. The major issue is what's the best decision for his business (ie. could he afford to fight).
24/7 University uses the Real Networks platform to handle the streaming of their learning videos. I asked him if Real was there to support him and his response was no.
This is mindboggling. Your business buys a software package from Real; another company comes along and says, "we own the rights to the technology Real sold you, you have to pay us too"; Real refuses to back you up. As if there weren't already enough reasons to hate Real.
Meanwhile, Acacia has now signed more than 100 porn companies to its licensing scheme. Acacia had offered a November 30 "amnesty" deadline for porn companies to sign the license and not be held responsible for past royalties and fees. Acacia also sued eight new companies earlier this month, including Jenna Jameson's ClubJenna. This could be their fatal mistake — no one messes with Jenna!
Acacia's stock price hovered around $1.75 for August, then skyrocketed in September and peaked around $8.50 in mid-October. Since then it has steadily declined, currently at $5.19 on Monday afternoon. (Past Acacia patent battle items from the Daze archives.)
