Acacia Patents invalid! Homegrown, VS others dance a jig
 

Homegrown Video, Video Secrets, AEBN and the rest of the companies that comprised the Defense Group can raise a toast at last:

The Acacia Defense Group has reason to extremely optimistic that the battle with Acacia over patent rights to send compressed audio and video signals over a network (Internet, cable, satellite) is finally near conclusion. On October 6, 2010, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit summarily affirmed the District Court?s Ruling that all of Acacia?s asserted patent claims are invalid. While Acacia has the right to ask the Supreme Court to review the case, the Supreme Court is unlikely to grant review in this matter, let alone reverse the judgment of the lower courts. For this reason, today the Acacia Defense Group has cause for celebration. Spike Goldberg of Homegrown Video who led the Defense Group since its formation declared, "We never backed away from this fight and now we can finally enjoy a victory that benefits our entire industry."

They sent me a package, I opened it and shredded it. Never heard from them again.

Damn how long did that take in total?

Congrats.

Lightspeed was one of the other companies who fought them :thumbsup

That's a long winded battle.

Awesome
Far-L, hit me up when you have a chance. I have some traffic for you guys :)

Hey Far L do you wanna skate at Staples on Sat Nov 6. Its a pregame skate so we play from 3pm - 4pm Gimme an email or a call

had a fancy package of those idiots years ago....... hope they will rott in hell

Ah acacia, I still have their stupid letter, bunch of rotten mofos :1orglaugh:1orglaugh

is there a link to an article about the Oct 6th appeals court decision??

Best news the last 2 months indeed.
Congratulations!

Homegrown Video gives thanks
 

Excellent, thank you! I will drop you an email asap!

:thumbsup

They never write any more . . . .

http://www.elevenentertainment.com/gfy/acacialetter.jpg

Awesome news...

Damn, it's been a long time coming, I remember that letter

I would've liked to do the same. Unfortunately, it was a legal document and required a response. We simply had too much to lose to run our company like that and not deal with it the way we did.

Wow, that's a blast from the past - glad to hear it's over! Nicely done!

I would love to. That would be an awesome b-day present to myself.

Wow talk about sticking with something and following through, most webmasters have no idea what you've done for them.

Thank you for fighting the fight for everyone, it is very appreciated.

Congrats to those who led the battle.

Congrats Far-L and everyone involved! :)

WTG

It is awfully refreshing to see someone sticking to their guns in this industry and following something through.

Congratulations on the outcome to all involved.

congratulations to the defense group that persevered!

Thanks... 7 years.

For us, most of the stress and bills happened in the first two years then we drafted on mainstream when they finally joined in.

Incredible though when you think about the effort to keep it together that long.

Wow, 7 fucking years!

Thank you for fighting that fight, I hope people are signing up for all of the programs that were involved in this fight.

Far-L, call me, got some biz for you.

Many congrats to the defense group - thank you all for fighting for everyone!

Jesus that took way too long. Congrats to the fighters!

Great! Congratz, seeing you have experience in the courts may as well get ready to take on Mallick/Epass :D

Just Kidding. Well Done Far-L!

7 years..holy crap!

post the list of the companies who settled/bought licenses for old times sake...

This is outstanding. For once our industry banded together and fought off a real legal threat. Nicely done.

Is there a list of all of the companies who fought this?

Congrats to everyone.

Yes another period in time that "the industry will die!!" fear and threat. There were many companies involved into that - but congrad's

A long as time, dat's fo sho. We'll see if this actually carries over to some of the other net applications and patents that are due to expire in the next 5-10 years.

The Defense Group
 

Those that fought: Homegrown Video, Video Secrets, AEBN, Lightspeed, Gamelink, Silvercash, Webmaster Paradise, Voyeur Web, Hot Movies, Age Check, as well as a couple others that died along the way... sorry if I am forgetting anyone

Those that caved can name themselves. I don't get to carve an Acacia leaf into their foreheads... but they do all owe us a thanks since we got them off the hook as well.

Funny how the "smaller" guys fought and won and the larger turds took it in the ass.

Comedy at it's finest.
:2 cents:

Didn't they get a mailing list from Matrix Content?

Well, they were laughing at us back in the day so I guess that is only fair.

So many weird and dasterdly stuff went on behind the scenes... the email list sell out, the settlements that almost derailed things time and time again.

This really taught us some hard lessons along the way. One thing is for sure... all the companies that fought this put a lot on the line. I can't say any of us were so deserving of credit for being altruistic; we all thought first and foremost of our bottom lines. However, we can take credit for being willing to take a stand, band together, and fight until a win, lose, or draw was decided. We can take credit for being willing to go on when others thought we were foolish to do so.

We did that because we valued our businesses and our customers. I guess that is really what we have to be proud of and why doing business with any of the companies that weathered this deserve your consideration.

Many thanks to all for the praise!

great stuff
sucks for all those that paid/bought licenses

Hats off to Homegrown and the rest of the Defense!

Actually, aren't those that settled still on the hook, even with the lawsuit thrown out?

Yeah, but now that the patent is invalidated I believe they are off the hook too now. However, I know for a fact we spent less in the long run than those which settled.

Wasn't epic cash one that settled?

Question I have is will Acacia have to pay back all the money the took from those who caved?

Now everyone needs to sue acacia for false patent infringement claims.

Congratulations. The troubling thing here is that it becomes apparent that due to the fact this took 7 years to resolve the court system really is not designed for conflict resolution but instead the judges are like pit bosses that make sure everyone continues to stay at the table and keep gaming!

yup they did

I got one of those, I think I wiped my dogs ass with it.

Congratz Far-L!

LOL. http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/new...oll-acacia.ars