CECash Settles With Acacia
From avn.com:
LOS ANGELES - CECash has agreed to a licensing deal with Acacia Media Technologies for a group of streaming media patents Acacia owns but several adult entertainment companies say are either dubious or unenforceable.
CECash was unavailable for comment as of July 2, but Acacia Media Research vice president Ron Berman told AVN Online.com he was more than pleased with the CECash deal, which runs through 2011 and could also mean substantial revenue for Acacia.
"[CECash] is known as a pioneer in the adult entertainment industry and a very shrewd [company]," Berman said. "[They] obviously thought it was in [their] company's best interest to license our technology, and we are hopeful that other companies will follow his lead."
Spike Goldberg of Homegrown Video, who also helped round up a group called Internet Media Protective Association earlier this year to help fight off the Acacia patent claim, said he wasn't going to hold "any animosity" toward anyone who does settle with Acacia, even if his company and those in his group were going to continue challenging the patents.
"Everybody has to make their own decisions," Goldberg said. "I can't speculate on why [CECash] settled, but I can say we aren't settled. Any company that ends up settling with Acacia, it's like a personal choice?If it's something they feel they've got to do, that's something they've got to do. I disagree with these patents, we don't think they're valid, (the CECash deal) doesn't change anything we're doing."
The actual terms of the CECash deal, including royalty schedules and rates, could not be disclosed, because of confidentiality agreements between CECash and Acacia included in the deal. But Berman did say that should the Acacia patents ultimately be ruled invalid or unenforceable, CECash and anyone else signing the licensing deals for the group of streaming media patents that Acacia refers to as Digital Media Technology (DMT) "would be relieved of the royalty payment obligations."
He also said the CECash deal included waivers of previously-claimed infringements, though the confidentiality agreements also kept him from disclosing just what those might have amounted to in CECash's case.
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