A federal court hearing is set for December 2 on motions for summary judgment of invalidity of Acacia Research’s Digital Media Transmission streaming media patent group.
The date was set during an August 17 conference call between Acacia, a group of adult Internet companies challenging the DMT patents, and federal judge James Ware.
Acacia executive vice president Robert Berman did not return a query for comment from AVNOnline.com before this story went to press, but New Destiny/Homegrown Video chief Spike Goldberg, who with VS Media chief Greg Clayman co-leads the adult Net’s challenge to Acacia, said the result of this hearing still would not mean the final resolution of the challenge.
“But I think we’re starting to see the Acacia case for what it really is,” Goldberg said. “We all know it was a matter of time and money, and both these things are finally coming to fruition. And, although this doesn’t mark the end of the case, it marks another point toward which we get this scourge away from the industry.”
“There’s still definitely more battles and problems to be fought,” Clayman said, “but we’re better off today than we were a year ago.”
Earlier this week, Acacia signed DMT licensing deals with two cable television providers, Seren Innovations and Boulder Ridge Cable TV, making it 169 total DMT licensing deals for Acacia and ending the company’s infringement litigation against the two providers. Seren and Boulder Ridge were two of nine cable companies sued for infringement in mid-June.
In mid-July, Ware held in a tentative ruling that several claim terms in the DMT patent group claim were deemed indefinable, while others were held definable on Acacia’s terms.
