AOL sells out to ACACIA

[gonzo]

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — As the case against a group of online adult companies continues in federal court over digital media transmission, Acacia Research Corp. has settled litigation in a separate case over electronic message advertising against America Online.


Acacia this week said its Creative Internet Advertising Corp. division licensed several patents to AOL to settle litigation between the two companies.
Acacia’s patent on electronic message advertising, U.S. Patent No. 6,205,432 (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=48&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=6205432&OS=6205432&RS=6205432), relates to the software, methods and systems used to insert, transmit and display background images and graphics into instant-messaging skins and email backgrounds.

According to patent “432,” “the advertisement itself, often a graphical file, is preferably not transmitted with the message but is typically stored at the message server or other location remote from the end-user recipient.”
Acacia filed suit in July against AOL and Yahoo over the “skins” technology it claims it owns. The suit against Yahoo still stands.
Calls to AOL and Acacia counsel Eric M. Albritton went unreturned at press time.

Acacia’s separate case against the group of online adult companies reaches back to 2002, when Acacia began sending out media packets asserting that the companies were violating patents associated with its digital media transmission technology, which Acacia claimed covered virtually any manner of transmitting and receiving digital and audio content over the Internet. Although Acacia was able to secure settlements from a number of adult companies, other companies fought back, and eventually coalesced into the united Adult Defense Group effort

[Hammer]

Just for the benefit of anyone not familiar with the Acacia situation from a few years ago, this is a completely different patent than the one they tried to enforce on us.

[EmporerEJ]

Just for the benefit of anyone not familiar with the Acacia situation from a few years ago, this is a completely different patent than the one they tried to enforce on us.

And they are still bloodsuckers.

[RawAlex]

Just for the benefit of anyone not familiar with the Acacia situation from a few years ago, this is a completely different patent than the one they tried to enforce on us.

Yes, but it is back to the same game: Taking a patent for something and attempting to stretch it to cover all sorts of things that weren't specifically mentioned in the intial patent, but are even passably similar in nature.

"An advertisement system and method are provided for inserting into an end user communication message a background reference to an advertisement. In some embodiments, the background reference causes an advertisement image to be tiled, or watermarked, across an end user screen behind the text of an e-mail message or public posting"

It is also another patent that attempts to take control over a basic function of graphics display, that of a watermark, which isn't something new (even in 1998) but something that had been around for years. Watermarking an image with "yourdomains.com" would be an advertisement and therefore would be prior art on this one. Ad serving is also a prior art, so there is little in this patent that wasn't already in use.

But Acacia has made a very good profit for itself proving that the cost of fighting them in court is often higher than the fees they charge to "license" their puffed up patents.

As a side note, you realize that this could apply to any and all advertising added to or added over videos, before or after a flash movie, or otherwise overlayed in any fashion onto an image, a message, or an email?

Cha-ching. Acacia takes another one down.