Two companies among nine sued by Acacia Research over the company's controversial streaming media patents have signed licensing deals for the patents that Acacia calls Digital Media Transmission.
The new deals involve Seren Innovations and Boulder Ridge Cable TV, bringing the total of DMT licensing deals to 169 and ending litigation between Acacia and the two companies.
"We continue to gain momentum in licensing the cable TV industry," said Acacia vice president Robert Berman. "We are also expanding our base of Internet licensees, including seven in the last two weeks and fifteen in the past four weeks." Those names have still not been disclosed.
In mid-June, Acacia sued for DMT infringement Seren, Boulder Ridge Cable, Comcast, Charter Communications, DirecTV, Echostar Communications, Central Valley Cable TV, Cox Communications, and Hospitality Network, the last a Cox subsidiary that provides in-room entertainment for the hotel industry.
"We are pleased that we are making progress in licensing our DMT technology to the cable TV industry," said Acacia chief executive Paul Ryan in a statement. "Acacia has now signed license agreements with four cable companies in the last six weeks."
Acacia signed a licensing deal with Central Valley Cable in early July, at about the time the Electronic Frontier Foundation published survey results proclaiming the DMT patent group topped its respondents' list of the most frivolous patents. Berman at the time suggested that survey and those results indicated the EFF had a selective view of rights, saying property rights were at least as important as free speech rights.
Right before they Central Valley, Seren, Boulder Ridge Cable, and the other cable companies, Acacia signed a licensing deal with On Command, the provider of in-room interactive entertainment to the hotel industry.
A week after the Central Valley Cable deal, U.S. District Judge James Ware held in a tentative ruling that some claim terms in the DMT patent group were deemed indefinable, as argued by several adult Internet companies challenging the DMT patent claims, while other terms were held to be definable on Acacia's terms. No new court dates have yet been set in that battle.
Though the battle between Acacia and the adult Internet is far from over, the challengers to the DMT claims said the tentative ruling could still pave the way toward final rulings that they didn't infringe the controversial patent group and even that the patent group itself might be invalid. Acacia said the tentative ruling still showed a solid case for infringement and, on the terms Ware held indefinable, the company planned to bring forward expert testimony to show otherwise.
