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Written by Brandon Shalton 9-Jan-2004
Companies listed in the PDF: smutbucks.com
Companies challenging Acacia's patent infringement claims in court: Defense Group: Video Secrets
Other Companies: Silver Cash Max Cash
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Acacia's Partners in Porn Acacia Research has targeted the Adult Industry as a potential source for revenue. Robert Berman, General Counsel for Acacia, has described the Adult Industry as "low hanging fruit". Acacia has not singled out the Adult Industry for patent infringement of its DMT patent that claims to own the process of downloading or streaming audio/video from a web server. They have targeted companies across the board including universities. Acacia has recently emailed a letter to Adult Industry companies for another round of patent license marketing. The following text was sent as a Word document to one of many webmaster who don't have any audio or video on their website, but link to a website that does in an "affiliate program". The affiliate to a membership porn site receives a commission on sales at the linked website. Acacia is claiming that by linking to a website that has audio/video and has not licensed their patent, that the company is considered to be a "contributory infringer". Since Acacia was unsuccessful at convincing the website that has audio/video to license the patent, they have then targeted the thousands of smaller companies/websites that direct traffic and signups to a website where people can purchase membership to a porn site. -------------------------------------------------------------------- January 2, 2004 Via Email / (email removed) RE: ACACIA'S DMT PATENTS Thank you for responding to our Final Notice letter on or before the November 30th deadline. Due to our delay in responding to you, we will still make available our pre-November 30th royalty rates, provided that you elect to enter into a license agreement with Acacia at this time. Our records indicate that you send traffic to one or more websites not licensed by Acacia that provide the digital audio/video content for viewing- (website removed). For this activity described above, you are potentially liable for patent infringement and need a license from Acacia. Please note that if you only send traffic to other websites that provide the digital audio/video content for viewing, and do not otherwise provide access to digital audio/video content on your website, you may avoid entering into a license with Acacia by sending (or redirecting) traffic to websites that are licensed by Acacia. You may find a current list of our licensed sponsors at LicensedSponsors.PDF If you desire to continue to send traffic to unlicensed sponsors, we are willing to offer you an annual prepaid royalty based on two percent (2%) of your actual gross sales for the immediately preceding twelve (12) month period during the term. The term of the License Agreement will begin on July 1, 2003. The royalty due for the first royalty period of July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004 is two percent (2%) of your actual gross sales for the period of July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2003. If you are interested in entering into a license with Acacia at the pre-November 30th royalty rates set forth above, please reply promptly to this email indicating your company name and your gross sales between July 1, 2002 and June 30, 2003. Upon receipt of that information, we will send you the appropriate license agreement for your review and execution. If you have
any questions or need additional information, please feel free to
visit our website at www.acaciatechnologies.com. Our website includes
copies of our patents, as well as engineering diagrams which illustrate
how some of our patent claims apply to the activity mentioned above.
These engineering diagrams should address any technical questions
you may have regarding our patented technology. To locate the Adult
Entertainment section of our website, from our homepage www.acaciatechnologies.com,
click on Technology?Internet? Adult Entertainment.
Sincerely, Karlton C. Butts --------------------------------------------------------------- Bold highlighting above was added by me for emphasis to the text. Another email that was sent out to companies prior to the above letter was a "Certification of Non-Use". This letter was seen as another joke by Acacia that showed up in people's mailboxes. A scan of the letter is here. Acacia's "marketing" letters have been the butt of many jokes, but 11 companies are taking the issue seriously enough as they wait for their first day in court on Feb 6th, to defend their companies against the patent claims. More well known porn company names like Hustler have already licensed Acacia's patent and a percentage of the gross revenue from the various porn companies are "taxed" by the patent license fee, making Acacia, a partner in porn.
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