12.09.07
Quick Mention: Acacia Claims Inventions It Does Not Own
Blogger abuse aside (an outrageous case where a patent troll, Ray Niro, threatens his critic using the fine art of patent terrorism), our old friend Acacia [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] faces an embarrassment. It turns out that Acacia claims others’ so-called “innovations” its own. Might Acacia be as credible as SCO, which launched a desperate and bogus lawsuit? Have a look.
Now I have looked further, and two items are pointing me away from Acacia. First, Acacia’s first post-acquisition press release described the GPH patents it acquired, but none of them seem to describe the ‘341 patent. Second, the USPTO assignments database doesn’t reflect an assignment from GPH to an Acacia subsidiary. That is not to say there was a transfer without a recordation - that happens all the time. But other GPH patents were apparently assigned to Acacia. Of course, when Mr. Niro sent me his threat letter, he didn’t say on behalf of whom he was sending the letter.
Remember that Acacia’s stock sank like a rock 3 weeks ago. It lost after its claims turned out to be weak at best (and probably just baseless). Perhaps, just perhaps, one ought to fear Acacia as much (or as little) as the dwindling SCO. Trolls are very brave in their natural habitat (under the bridge), but when faced with a judge and jury, they turn out to be bulls**t artists. █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.