Cyberheat Inc. (TopBucks) Licenses with Acacia
 

See Acacia's press release here: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040112/125149_1.html

As you know, for the past year TopBucks/Cyberheat Inc. has been a major contributor to the fight against the Acacia lawsuit. After careful consideration of all the underlying factors, however, and evaluating the relative risks and costs of continuing to fight, vs. the costs of licensing and paying the corresponding royalties, we have decided that the best decision for the future of our business is to obtain a license from Acacia, and thereby protect ourselves from the potential consequences of coming out on the losing end of the lawsuit. In essence, the decision came down to this; if we continued the fight and lost, we could be subject to paying royalties based on gross subscription revenues dating back several years, with up to triple damages. The impact of paying such an enormous sum would be disastrous, and could potentially put TopBucks out of business, entirely.

We realize that this announcement will come as a tremendous disappointment to many in the industry, and it is with great reticence and regret that we came to this decision. Obviously, we did not simply ?roll over?; TopBucks contributed a significant amount of money to the fight against the lawsuit over the last year, and our decision is based on a risk assessment, and was also made in light of the growing number of other industry leaders who have made the decision to license, rather than participate in the ongoing litigation.

Every company and individual must come to their own decision about how to proceed, and we certainly respect and admire those that continue to fight. Our licensing with Acacia does not in any way validate their claims, obviously, and it is my personal hope that those continuing the fight prove triumphant in the end.

I?m sure that a lot of you have questions and concerns about this; I'm available at [email protected] to answer any questions you may have.

- Q.

This space reserved.

LAME

:(

:throwup

Hmm.

:sadcrying

Damn that sucks.

Good luck guys, thanks for the internext pass btw :thumbsup

Did you guys talk to a patent attorney (that understands high-tech patents) before doing this?

looks like they didn't have a choice.

That fuckin court case cant come soon enough, wtf

Where are you looking?

I love Topbucks anyway! :thumbsup

Isn't that exactly what it does?

True one of the real programs out there, very upsetting thou.

That's pretty much fucked up.
I didn't expect this from one of the biggest sponsors around.

It pumps their stock in most cases and causes other to sign without talking to an attorney.

big time

Pretty surprising considering how close the court case is now. I guess this thing really could go either way :(

This is the whole scam idea of ACACIA ..

:(

Another one bites the dust. When will it stop?

is there anyone left to license now?

oh no
please not also topbucks :(

look at it this way, TopBucks is a business...a business is formed to make money, they gave it their best shot to try and fight. After a year of review they found that there was a good chance that everything they have built could go to shit if they lost the lawsuit...so they signed the agreement....why is that sooo hard to understand. I would sign if in their position and everyone (that has any business sence) would too.

:( Bad times

Of course we did. We wouldn't make a move in such a complex situation, or in any curcumstance involving any manner of lawsuit, without first consulting with our attorney.

- Q.

thank you..."leaders" of this industry.

A patent attorney?

A business lawyer would say sure do it considering the small amount it costs, but most if not all "high tech" patent attornies who has seen 1000's of these in the past 5 years I highly doubt would tell you anything more then throw the papers in the trash.

yeah, all kidding aside they made the right choice
its easy for people with nothing to lose to bitch about it and get on some kinda high horse.
:2 cents:

Agree

If you can't see how we're all gonna lose in this then you don't fully understand what's going on.

We were part of the defense group that hired Fish and Richardson, who are of course patent law specialists, and we consulted with our own attorney, who has experiece in patent law as well. Our decision was primarily a business decision though, and was not based solely on the advice of counsel.

- Q.

great another sponsor to boycott..

No we understand...it's all about money and positioning yourself after the big fall...I just hope that you made the right decision.

wait til youre actually faced with a lawsuit then gimme your opinion

i can assure you they had counsel advise them to sign, which means there was SOME merit anyway to the claims brought against them.

i know a tad bit about the law, and companies just dont sign things like that unless theres a DAMN good reason

I guess I assumed correctly...you don't understand at all what is going on.

youre annoying.

i can probably tell you more about acacia and and the legal grounds for what theyve been doing in 5 minutes than youre capable of understanding in a week of study.

might be a good time to point out ive been in law school for close to three years now.

The list of those fighting Acacia at:
http://www.fightthepatent.com/v2/PornPartners.html

has been updated given the news of Top Bucks signing (Acacia put out a PR statement this morning as well).

Top Bucks was part of the Defense Group and did contribute financially to the Defense Group.

Also updated to the page, is Silvercash and Maxcash fighting the lawsuit, but not part of the defense group.

No confirmation/comment yet from Spike since west coast people are probably still sleeping... (except for you west coast early birds)



Fight the Time Zones!