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Court Invalidates Key Patent Claims In Acacia's Streaming Media Patent
from the down-goes-another-one dept
The EFF's painfully slow patent busting project keeps on seeing success -- even if it's taking forever. The number one patent on the list was Acacia's streaming media patent, that was brought to court more than six years ago, basically going after anyone who did online streaming media. Acacia, of course, is one of the biggest and most well known of the patent hoarding firms that started getting lots of attention earlier this decade (the company now often tries to hide patents in shell companies, since the Acacia name is now so closely associated with "patent troll"). With this patent, Acacia was especially sneaky, in that it started by going after porn sites, figuring they wouldn't want to fight back.
Either way, a district court has just tossed out the 10 claims that it was asserting in its lawsuit against cable and satellite TV providers, claiming that they're all invalid. The EFF doesn't get credit for this one, since it wasn't through a USPTO patent review process, the overall impact is the same. For all intents and purposes, the parts of this patent that were being asserted against so many companies have been declared invalid. It doesn't change the fact that tons of companies have spent years and years fighting it and paying legal fees, but that's our patent system for you. Encouraging "innovation" the same way the mob encourages "safe neighborhoods."
Either way, a district court has just tossed out the 10 claims that it was asserting in its lawsuit against cable and satellite TV providers, claiming that they're all invalid. The EFF doesn't get credit for this one, since it wasn't through a USPTO patent review process, the overall impact is the same. For all intents and purposes, the parts of this patent that were being asserted against so many companies have been declared invalid. It doesn't change the fact that tons of companies have spent years and years fighting it and paying legal fees, but that's our patent system for you. Encouraging "innovation" the same way the mob encourages "safe neighborhoods."
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Re: stop the shilling!!!
do you think that simply dropping your name off will keep people from recognizing you?
More to the point, if you truly cant see the difference between actual theft of a design/patent and the over-written and overreaching patents that are the roots of the need for reform.. well, I am surprised you can string words together.
Or copy them off a website.
For an example of an overly broad patent, lets look at the one being challenged related to this article.
"A system of distributing video and/or audio information employs digital signal processing to achieve high rates of data compression. The compressed and encoded audio and/or video information is sent over standard telephone, cable or satellite broadcast channels to a receiver specified by a subscriber of the service, preferably in less than real time, for later playback and optional recording on standard audio and/or video tape"
The patent goes on to amend a dozen or more times, each time claiming another vague category, such as "Also to include digital transmission, and also to include transmission involving a computer"
There is no formula, no diagram or circuit. In truth, there is no system outlined in the patent at all, merely a claim against the IDEA of a system, broadly drawn out with a paint-roller to include any vaguely similar concept involving transmitting.. anything ever. This patent is held by a company that does not do any kind of business related to "distribution of video and/or audio" or any type of activity at all outside of sending legal notices.
try harder, RJR
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