Patents covering set-top boxes and some television sets used in digital satellite and cable systems have been licensed to Sony Corporation by Acacia Research, the firm battling the adult Internet in federal court over a group of streaming media patents.
The patents cover interactive television features supplied by satellite and cable providers in their digital programming packages, Acacia said, with data associated with those features "extracted and processed by components within the receivers, and . . . then made available to viewers who choose to access the interactive television features through their remote control."
The patents in question are part of a package of patents Acacia acquired as part its purchase of the assets of Global Patent Holdings at the end of January.
Those assets included 27 patent portfolios, and Acacia made a deal to buy them for $5 million and 3.9 million shares of Acacia stock, as well as an additional $2 million to be paid over two years. The patent portfolios covered broadcasting and data transmission, image resolution or enhancement, interstitial Internet advertising, peer-to-peer network communications, and audio-video synchronization.
Acacia's streaming media patent battle with a group of adult Internet companies, led by New Destiny/Homegrown Video and VS Media, is scheduled next for a status hearing in federal court in San Jose, Calif., June 14.
