These are the same dogs that are suing all the porn sites for patent infringements pertaining to streaming media. They are just a bunch of lawyers that are going around and buying up companies that have some value in their patents...
(Of course these words are only my words and not the words of my employer or any of my employers affiliated) -d I've stopped 6,304 spam messages. You can too! One month FREE spam protection at http://www.cloudmark.com/spamnetsig/?rc=ute4hl -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ross Finlayson Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 1:53 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [BAWUG] Warning: Acacia Research patent extortion attempt Today I received in the mail a letter from "Acacia Research", claiming that a wireless hot spot that I run infringes upon their US patent #<http://tinyurl.com/5ho2g>6,226,677, and asking that I "enter into a licensing agreement" with them. From the mailing address that they used, it is clear that they got my address by searching for web pages that describe wireless access points. Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised if other people on this mailing list receive similar letters. Their 'patent' basically describes a specialized TCP proxy that controls access to the Internet from the user's computer. Because my network doesn't use such a proxy (it provides a direct connection to the Internet), there's no possible way that it could infringe. However, for those of you who run 'captive portals', it's not inconceivable that they might be covered by this patent. One important thing to note, though: This patent was filed on January 15, 1999, and awarded on May 1, 2001. Therefore, there is almost certain to be *lots* of prior art covering this. It turns out that this company - Acacia Research - has been buying up lots of patents, and does business by trying to shake down several (mostly small) companies that it clams is 'infringing' upon them. For more information, see <http://www.fightthepatent.com/> and <http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/cat_acacia.shtml> (search for "<http://tinyurl.com/5ho2g>6,226,677"). In response, I'm going to be sending "Acacia Research" a strongly worded letter, telling them basically to FOAD. **Finally, a warning to any other parasites out there who may be reading this: I have been involved in Internet-related research for more than 20 years. Believe me, you *do not* want to get into a fight with me over 'prior art'. Don't even think about it!** Ross Finlayson LIVE.COM <http://www.live.com/> _______________________________________________ BAWUG's general wireless chat mailing list [unsubscribe] http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless _______________________________________________ BAWUG's general wireless chat mailing list [unsubscribe] http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
