Acacia Technologies is laying claim to the innovations that move video and music through cyberspace. Could this tiny company be the next Internet powerhouse? Acacia Technologies has a group of patents that it claims covers virtually every aspect of transferring digitally encoded media from a server to a customer. If Acacia's patents are valid and as broad as the company thinks they are, thousands of companies -- including titans like Time Warner, Disney, Microsoft, and Sony -- and maybe even hundreds of millions of users will have to pay Acacia directly or indirectly. Cable, satellite, and Internet service providers, video-on-demand companies, music sites, the new Web radio enterprises -- almost anyone delivering digital video or audio across a network will be liable. |
