Streaming Media Patent Upheld By Default

Legal Issues

from the does-that-really-count? dept

Back in February we wrote about the case of Acacia. They’re yet another “patent licensing companies” that doesn’t actually do anything innovative, but gets possession of various patents, and waits until others come up with the same ideas and actually tries to build something for the market. In this case, Acacia sits on some patents for streaming media. In order to make life easier for themselves and set some sort of precedent, they sued a bunch of porn sites. Apparently, the porn sites decided that they weren’t even going to bother fighting the suit. They didn’t settle or agree to pay. They just didn’t respond. Thus, the judge has upheld Acacia’s patent rights and told the sites they need to stop offering video and audio. Acacia, of course, is proudly publicizing the fact that this “validates” their patents. This is not the case. Acacia is acting like the little leaguers who “win” a game after not enough players show up for the other team. You don’t brag about such a “win”. You realize you got lucky and you move on. Hopefully, some company is actually willing to take on Acacia and prove to a judge that their patents are not valid.