Chronicle article: Company's Letters to Colleges Say Its PatentsCover Streaming Media for Courses

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Of possible interest to readers of this list.  It is available to 
subscribers of the Chronicle online or in print.  Sounds like some
negotiating will need to happen ...

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This article is available online at this address:

http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/10/2003100301t.htm

              - The text of the article is below -
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  Friday, October 3, 2003

  Company's Letters to Colleges Say Its Patents Cover Streaming
  Media for Courses

  By SCOTT CARLSON
  
  A California company is telling colleges and universities that
  it owns patents related to audio and video streaming used for
  online courses, and that it is entitled to a portion of
  revenues from such courses. 
  
  Administrators at some of the colleges the company has
  contacted say they are studying its demands, but they have not
  yet agreed to licensing deals. 
  
  The company, Acacia Research Corporation, holds five U.S.
  patents and 17 international patents in
  digital-media-transmission technology. The patents cover not
  technological details but concepts like streaming audio and
  digital signals on demand from servers to users' machines. 
  
  Acacia has sent patent-infringement letters to an unknown
  number of colleges across the country, offering to overlook
  past infringement in exchange for the institution's signing on
  to "a special royalty rate of two percent of gross revenue
  from each online course that includes digital audio and/or
  video content." 
  
  [SNIP]
  
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Copyright 2003 by The Chronicle of Higher Education