Three months after he began working on a nonprofit foundation to help finance prior art discovery and finding expert testimony in the battle between Acacia Research Corp. and a number of adult Internet companies over streaming media patents, FightThePatent.com's Brandon Shalton is shelving the idea indefinitely.
"It's going to be sitting on the shelf until someone rings the doorbell and says ‘Hey, that's a great idea,’" Shalton told AVN.com, adding he would also continue FightThePatent.com as a part-time activity while concentrating on his role as chief technology officer for Adult Sites Against Child Pornography and his new Internet consultancy, CyData Services.
"The foundation proposal wasn't accepted by adult or mainstream (Internet) companies," Shalton told AVN.com Feb. 9. "No one found the need for it for now. I'm not stopping my (Website) postings or my articles, but I'm stopping the idea of what the foundation was formalized to become."
Shalton said there were times when people misunderstood exactly what he did or how much effort he put into the patent issue, particularly the battle over Acacia's effort to compel adult Internet companies to license their claimed group of streaming media patents – known as Digital Media Transmission – and over whether the patents are in fact valid. "It seems that I spent five months intensively working by contacting people on the phone and talking to Webmasters," he said, "not just writing cute satirical articles on the board, but I was a lot more active than people realize.
"It got to a certain point that (now) it's out of my hands," he continued. "Everybody knows about Acacia. We found a lot of good prior art that we gave not only the defendants but five other attorneys from the mainstream, and it's in court now, so it's out of my hands."
Shalton also apologized if people got the impression he was just planning to walk away from the issue. "I look to still be active in getting with these issues," he said. "I was never looking to be a hero. But at the same time, I realize is that if the perception is that I’m walking away, I can understand it. But I'm definitely going to be there. I only hope, when the next patent issue comes through, people do see the need for proactive effort to fight against patent."
Shalton said he was excited that the mainstream media and the mainstream Internet is picking up on the streaming media patent question. "I think through the adult industry the mainstream world has now officially become aware of this issue," he said. "More coverage is going to be done, and more attention is going to be paid. I could be more proactive, but that's really what FightThePatent Foundation was about, and it does take money. I'm hoping, as I start on my new venture, I'll have to use my own money and, maybe along the way, companies will find there's some value in this kind of organization and will support it then."
