Acacia Subsidiary Acquires 4 Patent Portfolios

“Acacia is rapidly becoming the leader in technology licensing and we continue to grow our base of future revenues by adding new patent portfolios,” commented Paul Ryan, Acacia CEO and President.

ABOUT ACACIA RESEARCH CORPORATION

Acacia Research Corporation’s subsidiaries partner with inventors and patent owners, license the patents to corporate users, and share the revenue. Acacia Research Corporation’s subsidiaries control over 200 patent portfolios, covering technologies used in a wide variety of industries.

Information about Acacia Research Corporation and its subsidiaries is available at www.acaciaresearchgroup.com and www.acaciaresearch.com.


Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon our current expectations and speak only as of the date hereof. Our ability to grow our future revenues by adding new patent portfolios, and our actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors and uncertainties, including the recent economic slowdown affecting technology companies, the ability to successfully develop licensing programs and attract new business, rapid technological change in relevant markets, changes in demand for current and future intellectual property rights, legislative, regulatory and competitive developments addressing licensing and enforcement of patents and/or intellectual property in general, and general economic conditions. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, recent and forthcoming Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Forms 8-K and 8-K/A, and other SEC filings discuss some of the important risk factors that may affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.
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Posted by Unknown at 21:48:00
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AOL to sell more than 800 patents to Microsoft

NEW YORK — Faltering Internet icon AOL was able to squeeze out more than $1 billion from Microsoft for a trove of about 800 patents in an auction, the latest sign of just how valuable such portfolios can be for the world’s biggest technology companies.

“There is a fight for market share occurring on multiple fronts — technology, patents, advertising,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Financial who covers Microsoft. “Microsoft, more so than others out there, has been [using] its patent portfolio as a way to generate license fees. This should strengthen that.”

Microsoft refused to say what the patents cover. Benchmark analyst Clayton Moran said they revolve around Internet technology, including advertising, search and mapping. This would help Microsoft go up against Google Inc., a big rival that is ahead of it in all three areas.

Patents have become a hot commodity in the high-tech industry in recent years. They’re useful both for attack — for suing competitors — and for defense — for warding off lawsuits with threats of countersuits.

Rising star Facebook, for instance, recently purchased 750 patents from IBM Corp., a move that likely helped the company defend itself after Yahoo Inc. accused it of violating 10 Yahoo patents. Facebook shot back with its own lawsuit, claiming Yahoo is violating 10 Facebook patents.

Software patents can have broad applications, and thousands of patents can apply to a complicated product like a cellphone. Google is buying phone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for $12.5 billion, in large part, to get control of its patents.

AOL’s shares surged to their highest level in more than a year following the announcement. The company agreed to sell 800 of its patents and license others to Microsoft for about $1.06 billion in cash. The New York-based Web site developer and Internet access company said it plans to return some of the sale proceeds to its shareholders. After the sale, AOL said it should have about $15 per share of cash on hand.

Its stock rose $7.83, or 43 percent, to $26.25 in midday trading, adding more than $750 million to its market capitalization. Microsoft shares slipped 20 cents, to $31.32 amid a broader market decline.

AOL’s move signals that it’s listening to stockholders who are asking for more return on their investment. In February, one of AOL’s largest shareholders, an investment firm, said it will nominate candidates for the company’s board because it wasn’t doing enough to make money from its patents. AOL said at the time that it already had begun to look at ways to unlock patent value.

After the sale, AOL said it still will hold more than 300 patents and applications covering a variety of technologies, including advertising, search, content generation, social networking, mapping, multimedia, and security among others.

As part of the deal, AOL also received a license to use the patents it sold to Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp.

“The combined sale and licensing arrangement unlocks current dollar value for our shareholders and enables AOL to continue to aggressively execute on our strategy to create long-term shareholder value,” AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong said in a statement.

AOL said it will determine the best way to distribute a “significant portion” of the sale proceeds to shareholders before the sale closes, which is expected to happen by the end of this year.

AOL Inc. owns news sites like Huffington Post, Engadget and Techcrunch, but makes much of its money by providing dial-up Internet access.

AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson contributed to this story.

Reposted By Our Services
Posted by Unknown at 22:36:00
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Specific Effects of Software Patents:

let us consider the particular case of software patents.

As a computer professional, I can certify that innovation is never atomic in the computer industry. On the contrary, computer software constantly and crucially depends on the ability to freely and quickly reuse, combine and evolve previous techniques.

In the age of interconnected computers, software plays an essential and ubiquitous role in the way computers, people, businesses, countries, etc., communicate with each other. Industrial property on software thus leads to monopoly lock-ins in the way people communicate. To computer professionals, software patents are as dreadful as if someone had patents on part of the English language (or whichever language they use). It prevents not only innovation, but the use of computers at all, and leads to proprietary systems from big monopolies that few can use, and that no one can innovate upon.

Patents induce such a technological stagnation in the computer industry that it is almost visible. Software engineers constantly curse the way they must conform to proprietary protocols that are not well documented (if at all), misdesigned (often with gross mistakes that peer review would have immediately eliminated), that they cannot improve upon, that exist in a wealth of gratuitously incompatible variants, and with which they must stay compatible for decades and decades. The field of computer development is thus filled with junk, that accumulates with time, and that no one has the right to clean, least he becomes incompatible with the others. Every patent on a successful software program or technique is an obstacle to the whole industry, that remains until it expires; even the holder, when he wants to improve his previous technique, finds himself faced with the inertia of a whole industry that adapted to his own junk, contorting either to interface to it, or to work around it.

Thus, the specific effect of patents in the software industry is to make software development and computer communication slower, more complex, more expensive. The amount of money, computer hardware, developer time, user time, etc., that is wasted and could be saved by removing protectionist barriers is so insanely high as to give vertigo to anyone.


Posted by Unknown at 01:42:00
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Macroeconomic Effects of Patents

The essence of a Patent is a de jure monopoly: a total control on all activities related to some technique, device, or whatever is subject to the patent: use of a technique, experimentation with it, enhancement to it, technical support about it, etc. Such monopoly does not reside in a natural unability of other people to produce the same services without causing harm to someone. On the contrary it consists in a state-enforced prohibition for others to carry out activities in which they could otherwise engage most legitimately, without harming anyone, for the benefit of all concerned.

Such monopolies are not natural property: they are privileges granted by governments to a first claimer under the pretense of promoting creation of new techniques. Nobody can deny that patents are a privilege, rather than natural property. The US constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, makes it explicit: "The Congress shall have power [...] To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries; [...]". The State grants a time-limited privilege in as much as it hopes that this privilege will foster innovation. Thomas Jefferson, who co-originated this section of the US constitution, clearly explains it in some letters of his correspondance.

Even disregarding the authority of the US founding fathers, it is clear that these monopolies are not legitimate property of patent holders: indeed, even the most extended patent laws acknowledge that freedom must ultimately (after a number of years) be returned to the public to freely use the patented technology. Legitimate property would last forever, whereas patents last for a mostly arbitrary number of years that changes depending on the country, the date, and the whim of the legislator (and on the growing influence of patent lobbies on governments).

Patents are a privilege, the cost of which is borne by the public. Any economic account of patents that displays their alleged benefits without even considering their cost is a shameful lie; it is a disgrace that most people (and most legislators, too) are so easily fooled by the omnipresent protectionist propaganda of patent lobbies.

Republished article from TT Consultants
Posted by Unknown at 22:16:00
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Apple Files an Interesting Patent

he internet and technology world keeps getting interesting with known companies filing weird and awkward patents and introducing new applications. Today it was revealed by a popular website Patently Apple that the company has filed a patent for a stylus known as the iPen. This new stylus features a vibrating feedback for users who use it. The feedback occurs on how you press the pen and how fast you handle it. The vibration is there to let you know if you are doing things alright. The patent in question was actually filed in 2010, but it was revealed to the public today. Apple fans shouldn’t get excited though because the company is known to file patents and never actually produce the device.
In other news Yahoo is heating up its battle with Google by introducing new and innovative search engine plug-ins. The company recently released its new browser and app called the Yahoo Axis. The application and browser plug-in is an interesting new thing that attaches itself to your browser on PC or works as an application on your smartphone. It helps users conduct relevant search on their browser and also lets them view websites that they have already visited in a small box. The Axis is an interesting addition from the company because it also saves user preferences across all devices that the user owns. So next time you come across a great website, the plug-in should save it for you so you can view it from your Android or iPhone later on.
If you think that’s all you are mistaken, as Google has also been working on new stuff. Today the software giant released a number of different video clips recorded through its new Project glasses. These new augmented reality glasses allow users to interact with their smartphone interface in the real world. The glasses also have a small camera preinstalled on them which can record videos or take snapshots. The video released today was a recording done by an anonymous Googler that showed the world the power of the little camera that is attached to the device.

Source
Patent News






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