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There is a company (German I believe?) who owns the patent on CD technology. They get a small royalty as far as I am aware when CDs are made. I'd have to find the article I read about it, but it was in relation to this case.
Patents and trademarks can be challenged directly, like Acacia's V-chip patent was.
Acacia has a recent history of ripping people off, hence a 10.8 million settlement that was handed down AGAINST their biotech wing by a company they apparently stole either ideas or technology from.
They made $800k+ last year, down from 24 MILLION the year prior.
I can't see this company going far and I can't see intelligent investors getting in this late in the game. Their shareholders are allegedly trying to stage a takeover as well. I would if the company was valued so horribly and had taken a 3000% hit.
Read that Forbes article, that's where I got the most recent info on the company itself, prior to that all I had was past statute from other similar cases.
They say that the patent office is millions under-funded every year, horribly understaffed, and the approach they take in many cases is to issue patents on things with the assumption that if they are too broad and ridiculous they will simply be challenged and struck down. This would be one of those obvious cases.
And Microsoft and Silicon Valley have gone to bat for smaller folks, they went in front of the Supreme Court vs. the other media companies on recent copyright extension rulings (Disney just bought themselves another few decades on Mickey). They might play ball, so might Real, you never know till you try. Many of those guys have their hearts and heads in the right place, i.e. Yahoo.
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