GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - Why Acacia will ultimately lose the battle

Nathan · 07-23-2003, 02:10 AM

Hey,

did anyone here even read the Acacia Research Patent? Or rather the Patent they got when buying USA Video, Inc.? Patent Numer 5,130,792 awarded to USA Video, Inc.

I am no Patent Lawyer, but I hope there is some logic in the laws regarding Patent, so that a Patent can not be stretched for miles. In the Abstract the Patent states: "Due to the compression of the program, the time required for electronically transferring the program to the remote location is much less than the viewing time for such program."

This means, just creating a video with your digicam, compressing it, putting it on an ftp server, and letting people download it is _ONLY_ infrigine that patent if the download speed is faster than the viewing speed. Of course, with the Internet getting faster and faster each day this will more and more be the case, but it is not for every single video and not for every single user, so it can't be so easy for Acacia to prove that all your videos available for download from your sites fall under this patent.

Also, the only reason why this Patent actually might work with normal streaming video sites on the web is this silly paragraph at the end of the patent: "While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention."

Again, I am no Patent lawyer but I do not know how much they can stretch this patent. The patent talks about "telephone lines" all over the place. It also describes quite exactly how a video is ordered and says it is via telephone too. But again, this damn last paragraph probably removes all these problems.

The patent sadly also describes an implementation of 2-way video conferencing, which I am very surprised about.

Isn't there something in the law that states if you do not try to go against people using your patent you lose it? Just like it is with trademarks? I mean, if you sit there, for over 10 years, doing nothing against people using the stuff in your patent, and then you suddenly go running after people, isn't this against the law somehow?

07-23-2003, 02:10 AM
Nathan Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 3,108	Hey, did anyone here even read the Acacia Research Patent? Or rather the Patent they got when buying USA Video, Inc.? Patent Numer 5,130,792 awarded to USA Video, Inc. I am no Patent Lawyer, but I hope there is some logic in the laws regarding Patent, so that a Patent can not be stretched for miles. In the Abstract the Patent states: "Due to the compression of the program, the time required for electronically transferring the program to the remote location is much less than the viewing time for such program." This means, just creating a video with your digicam, compressing it, putting it on an ftp server, and letting people download it is _ONLY_ infrigine that patent if the download speed is faster than the viewing speed. Of course, with the Internet getting faster and faster each day this will more and more be the case, but it is not for every single video and not for every single user, so it can't be so easy for Acacia to prove that all your videos available for download from your sites fall under this patent. Also, the only reason why this Patent actually might work with normal streaming video sites on the web is this silly paragraph at the end of the patent: "While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention." Again, I am no Patent lawyer but I do not know how much they can stretch this patent. The patent talks about "telephone lines" all over the place. It also describes quite exactly how a video is ordered and says it is via telephone too. But again, this damn last paragraph probably removes all these problems. The patent sadly also describes an implementation of 2-way video conferencing, which I am very surprised about. Isn't there something in the law that states if you do not try to go against people using your patent you lose it? Just like it is with trademarks? I mean, if you sit there, for over 10 years, doing nothing against people using the stuff in your patent, and then you suddenly go running after people, isn't this against the law somehow? __________________ "Think about it a little more and you'll agree with me, because you're smart and I'm right." - Charlie Munger