It has not been determined yet if any of the companies that settled got a sweetheart deal.
Hustler has stated, through Ken, that they did not get any kind of sweetheart deal, and they paid the standard rate.
While it is a possiblity that some early licensees got a better deal, here is how a Sweetheart deal might look like, hypothetically speaking:
A sweetheart deal could be perceived by someone looking to license from Acacia by the way they write up the license.
Open up the webmaster license from:
http://www.acaciatechnologies.com/pr...eAgreement.pdf to follow along. Scroll down to Section 3.1
Let's say "Small Webmaster Inc." makes about $55,000 per year in Gross Revenue.
Based on the chart, their "Initial PrePaid Royalty Fee" would be $3,000.
In this example, Acacia writes up a license contract where they put down your estimated Gross Revenue is $45,000 so you only pay them $1,500.
So then you say, that's a good deal, let's sign.... it's cheaper than fighting and its a business decision.
Then Jan 2004 comes around, and then Acacia says, show us your books so we can see what your actual Gross Revenue was for 2003.
You show them your tax return that your accountant prepared for IRS filing, and the tax return says $56,232.18.
Acacia then informs you that according to Section 3.3, your "Additional Royalty" is $4,050 since your actual revenue is higher than the estimated!
Now you are starting to feel screwed.. because they had suggested "fudging" your Gross Revenue number and you thought it made sense and signed the deal. You may also have thought that the effective date of the contract was the date that you signed, so the money you paid covered prior infringements and for another 12 months.
Acacia then points out that the contract you signed in 2003, only covered up to 12/31/2003, one year from the "effective date" of 1/1/2003.
So a NEW yearly license fee is required. Now that you have reported $56,232.18 for revenue in 2003, they ask you what you estimate for Gross revenue in 2004.
You then look back and see that you just got screwed, because if your contract was using $55,000 from the beginning, you would have had to pay $3,000. Since you underestimated the Gross Revenue reported to them, you paid a total of $5,550!
So now you realize, you really didn't get a Sweetheart deal, you got a SourScrew.
You now realize that you should not have accepted the suggestion of using a lower Gross Revenue number just to get your license fee down..... so for 2004, you submit $60,000 for revenue which means you write a check for $3,000 within 30 days.
Since you rushed to take advantage of the "Amnesty Program", you paid:
$1,500 before Nov 30th
$4,050 in Jan 2004, for underestimating Gross Revenue in 2003
$3,000 in Jan 2004 for the 2004 license
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$8,550 paid to Acacia within 60-90 days
If you had properly stated your estimated Gross Revenue, it would have looked like:
$3,000 before Nov. 30th
$3,000 in Jan 2004 for the 2004 license
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$6,000 paid to Acacia within 60-90 days
This is all completely hypothetical, and could be my own screwy interpretation of the license...but your attorney would be able to understand all of this...so be sure to point them out to this screwy interpretation and see if it matches what they think.
Fight the Screws!