Written by

Brandon Shalton

26-Feb-2004

Intra-Day and Intra-Article posts found on the homepage in my plog (patent log).

Disney gets goofy

Disney Enterprises licenses the DMT patent from Acacia today. Acacia PR:

Acacia Technologies Licenses Digital Media Transmission Technology to the Walt Disney Company
Thursday February 26, 7:00 am ET

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 2004--Acacia Research Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTG - News; Nasdaq: CBMX - News) announced today that its Acacia Technologies Group has entered into a license agreement for its Digital Media Transmission ("DMT") technology with Disney Enterprises, Inc. The license includes the Walt Disney Internet Group which operates the Disney, ESPN, and ABCNews websites.

Acacia has now entered into 116 license agreements for its DMT technology with companies in the hotel in-room entertainment, e-learning, and online music, movie, sports, news, information, and adult entertainment industries.

There has been several visits by Disney and some of its properties to this website and it is disappointing that no Disney attorney contacted me to see what kind of prior art that we had found. Afterall, the information is provided for FREE and would have given them more insight into the absurdity of the DMT patent claims.

There is an urban myth that larger companies that sign with Acacia must mean that the patent is valid.

My favorite saying comes to mind: "it was a business decision".

Disney just got free advertising by Acacia to be the next target by SightSound and USA Video.

Will Disney welcome the next patentee with cookies and lemonade or will after the 2nd or 3rd set of licenses will they decide 'enough is enough' ?

When the current defendants are found to be not-infringing, the companies that signed will have to continue to pay licenses. They would have to stop paying Acacia, get sued by Acacia for breach of contract, and then go to court to show the judge the non-infringement ruling from the defendants case to get out.

It just goes to show that big corporations follow the same line of thinking as marital instability, "it's cheaper to keep her".