February 6, 2004

Colleges That Transmit Sound and Video Online Reluctantly Discuss Strategy for Answering Patent Claim

By SCOTT CARLSON

Colleges, along with pornography distributors and mainstream businesses, are struggling for ways to refute claims by Acacia Research Corporation, which says it owns patents on the streaming technology that allows Web users to transmit and play sound and video. In letters to companies and to many colleges, Acacia is seeking licensing deals that would pay it 2 percent of the gross revenue the recipients derive from such online media.

Acacia has had some successes recently. It was just

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