Acacia Research software patent claim for streaming media

Hello,

I thought you folks might find this situation of interest.

The software patents were submitted starting back in 1992 and the
assignment was purchased by a California IP licensing company. One of
the patent abstracts reads as follows:

"A system of distributing video and/or audio information employs digital
signal processing to achieve high rates of data compression. The
compressed and encoded audio and/or video information is sent over
standard telephone, cable or satellite broadcast channels to a receiver
specified by a subscriber of the service, preferably in less than real
time, for later playback and optional recording on standard audio and/or
video tape."


The U.S. patent office granted this patent even though it seems overly
broad and  totally ignores all prior art. Go figure...

Here is an article on how the IP licensing company is seeking to enforce
their claim:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,767478,00.asp

best regards,

 mud
___________________________________
"I bet the human brain is a kludge." - Marvin Minsky

Received on Saturday, 25 January 2003 19:21:25 UTC