Patentwise, the machine vision stuff doesn't really deal with the same stuff as Acacia... But, the more that get thrown out, the harder judges will be looking at the ones that get in front of them and the more questions they will ask...imho....
As far as the 1.5 billion... Remember, the same guys that are Acacia were Gemstar and they did multi multi billions of dollars in licensing fees before their patents were found to have NOT been infringed upon.
The more folks that sign, the more money coming in to Acacia and the longer Acacia will want to string it out. I don't think that they actually want their stuff anywhere near a courtroom. They want to string it out as long as possible collecting whatever licensing fees thay can get.
http://www.oprano.com/msgboard/index.php?a...b96f3f0ca5e2c1e