With the addition of a new writer (welcome Shar!) for FightThePatent.com, we will be pushing to get mainstream attention.

Feel free to post/send today's PR statement to those you know who can help to get the word out.

http://www.fightthepatent.com/v2/PR-1117.html

This is the start of a series of PR statements, so any help in spreading the word is greatly appreciated. Please email me to know what sources you know that accepted the PR...so I can start to create a mailing list for the next articles.

Thanks in advance,
brandon

ps. some FTPF supporters are emailing this PR statement to their customers to see if some of them might be connected to media (you never know who just might be one of your members)

I've been thinking about all this patent stuff and have an observation to make...

Remember how Webfather built an empire on .com domains? He used to spend hours each day "down the mines". So effective was he that many companies decided they simply couldn't do business without one of his domains. So, for a price, they would acquire the domain and then go on to do good business, and Rick would buy another car ; )

It seems to me there's a parallel whereby patent companies register as many patents as they can hoping to license just a few of them to make their money. Some companies will decide they cannot do business without one of these patents and will license it and go on to do good business.

Now, of course, when you were NOT THE FIRST to invent something (as many people believe Acacia wasn't) then you should lose your patent. But if you validly got awarded a patent trhen why not make some money from it? Even if it's something as obnoxious as Amazon's 1 click purchase system. So far it appears to be standing for them - and if nobody else defeats their claim? Well, they could license it (although I bhelieve that has not happened yet).

So the moral of this story? If you have an idea, patent it. You may be able to license it or sell the patent later.

... I guess you can't blame Acacia for trying.

BTW This is not a post supporting Acacia's case - Personally I think there's far too much prior art - so I hope they lose thier patent.

- Frank

I agree with you 100%.

FightThePatent.com and the proposed Fight the Patent Foundation is not anti-patent, just anti bad patents.

If Yurt (the inventor of the patent that Acacia purchased) actually invented something, and there was no prior art, and a court system validated the claims, then yes, the patent holder has every right to benefit from their Intellectual Property.

If this were the case with Acacia DMT patent, then Acacia would not be an issue.. there are thousands of patents that get licensed each year, and are factored as a COGS for a product.

It's such a joke for Acacia to reference the patent as being "technology". Technology involves software and hardware, created by people. There is no technology in the patent. Inventions do not have to be tangible objects, they could be processes like vulcanization.

But given my experiences and research, the patent claims are broadly interpreted from the patent, and the actual patent itself does not claim ownership to such ideas as downloading audio/video from a web server as evident by prior art.


Fight the Fire!

From Yahoo:

Some info concerning patent re-examination request like the one that is being done against the Eolas patent (Microsoft lost in court to Eolas for allowing IE to use embeded programs like Flash). The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has petitioned the USPTO and the USPTO has accepted the request.

Usually takes 3-6 months after filing to be addressed. Due to public outcry, the request took 1 week and the USPTO Director personally approved the re-exam request!

Information gathered from talking to several patent attorneys on re-exams:

The patent examiner will spend about 15 hours total on the re-exam..which is alot more time than is spent on the actual patent(!!!) before coming to a preliminary decision, before then talking to the patent holder.

A person or company pays the filing fee (about $1,300) and then needs to have a patent attorney craft explanations of prior art to invalidate the patent claims. The estimate cost is about $30k-$50K for the whole process in attorney time, not to mention money spent to find prior art.

A completed document is filed to the USPTO...and then the examiner reviews the information and discusses with the patent holder. The review is one-sided..only the patent holder is allowed to discuss the prior art points with the examiner.

The process could take 6-8 months (or longer) before a final decision is made.

If the prior art is solid and the patent holder cannot explain away the evidence, then the patent is revoked and invalidated.

It is better to argue in court with a judge, then to take your chances with submitting a document to the USPTO. Atleast with a judge, you can argue your points....with the re-exam, there is not discussion.

The downside is that the patent holder can continue to gain new licensees of their patent, until the final outcome has been determined.



Fight the Delays!

Since the Acacia hearings aren't even until April, I'm sure we could all live with a 6-8 month delay ... so let's get the movement to reexamine the Acacia patent going ... citing the Eolas precedent.

Btw, here's a fact: The patent office has ordered such re-examinations only 151 times since 1981 and issues about 180,000 patents each year. Came from here: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,525038018,00.htm

As to places to get attention, I'm shocked that so far Tech TV hasn't been contacted ... Screen Savers, Tech Live and Unscrewed should all have had interviews with Spike or someone by now IMHO. So that's one place I would strongly suggest becomes aware of Acacia ... hell, I've seen a million other reports on all of those shows about all the other patent whores, but never Acacia cause no one let's them know.

Since the Acacia hearings aren't even until April, I'm sure we could all live with a 6-8 month delay ... so let's get the movement to reexamine the Acacia patent going ... citing the Eolas precedent.

Btw, here's a fact: The patent office has ordered such re-examinations only 151 times since 1981 and issues about 180,000 patents each year. Came from here: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,525038018,00.htm

As to places to get attention, I'm shocked that so far Tech TV hasn't been contacted ... Screen Savers, Tech Live and Unscrewed should all have had interviews with Spike or someone by now IMHO. So that's one place I would strongly suggest becomes aware of Acacia ... hell, I've seen a million other reports on all of those shows about all the other patent whores, but never Acacia cause no one let's them know.[/b][/quote]
I used to work there (TTV) and am on good terms with several of the top people there. Their format is "family-friendly," and they have probably stayed away from the topic because even though it affects other industries, it is considered an adult industry topic.

Brandon, if you would like any help in getting in touch with someone over there, I will do whatever I can to facilitate that meeting. Shoot me a PM or e-mail here at Oprano.

Well they would certainly do it on Unscrewed. They've had Tom from AVN and others on there.

And now that Acacia is hitting up college students and universities, this might be the time.

Btw, very cool you're having worked there, GirlGeek. I enjoy watching the programming there very much!

Thanks Dravyk. It was a fun place to work.

I'm sure Unscrewed would have no format objections to the topic, and the Executive Producer for it, is a close friend. I also know Martin very well, as we used to work together. It's probably better to send me a PM here at Oprano with all the contact info and a brief synopsis for a pitch. I will give it to them and then have them contact you directly.

yes,yes,yes!

ICQ me: 52741957