Many of you have no idea who or what Acacia is so allow me to give you some background. At one time Acacia sent legal notices to everyone in porn from the smallest sites to the largest that Acacia owned the patents on streaming and all delivery technology for audio and video. Some companies actually paid them large sums of money to “license” this technology Hustler for instance. Others like HomeGrown and Lightspeed said no way, this technology has been in the public domain for years, its as old as usenet, and they filed suit. After a steady string of loses for Acacia we have this new update
Acacia Update 10-18-07
Acacia continues its long retreat from the Patents it has asserted against the defendants in the Adult Media Defense Group. Acacia has agreed that under the court’s construction all claims of the ‘702 patent are invalid. As to the second patent in the case, the ‘992 patent, under the court’s construction, we believe claims 1-18 are also invalid. During summary judgment briefing, Acacia appeared to agree with our position. Now Acacia has agreed to dismiss claim 24 of the ‘992. The Court is currently working on a fourth claim construction order, which we believe will bring the claim construction process to an end and permit the group to file motions requesting the remaining claims be declared invalid. While Acacia will undoubtedly appeal Judge Ware’s claim construction orders, we are confident that the appellate court will agree with Judge Ware’s analysis and affirm his rulings thereby bringing the case to an end.
We all owe a dept of gratitude to Companies like HomeGrown, Lightspeed and ATK who took this fight to Acacia and spent a lot of money doing so. The next time someone tries to use our industry as a cash cow, they will think twice before doing so.
