Following a telephonic conference call on Aug. 17 with U.S. District Court Judge James Ware and lawyers for Acacia and Fish & Richardson, the law firm hired to defend the Joint Defense Group, a schedule has been set for the next few months that will cover both the post-Markman Hearing stage of the lawsuit and will determine whether Acacia can proceed with a motion for a class-action lawsuit against the entire adult industry.
According to Spike Goldberg of Homegrown Video and Greg Clayman of Video Secrets, the meeting went well and resulted in Judge James Ware setting two dates for post-Markman court hearings, Dec. 2 and 3, during which he will hear motions for summary judgment for invalidity on two of Acacia's five U.S. patents.
According to Goldberg, the Defense Group will ask the judge to hear motions on all claims that pertain to the 702 patent and all but six claims on the 992 patent.
Another court date is set for October in San Jose, Calif., where Ware will hear arguments on the pending class-action lawsuit that Acacia filed in April, which seeks to create a defendant class covering all porn companies whose video content can be received in the judicial Central District of California, an area that encompasses most of Southern California.
Earlier this week, Acacia announced the addition of two more cable television companies, Seren Innovations Inc. and Boulder Ridge Cable TV, to its list of digital media transmission licensees.
Both companies were formerly named in a patent infringement lawsuit filed on June 15 in the District Court for the Northern District of California against nine cable and satellite companies, including heavyweights Comcast, Charter Communications, DirecTV, Echostar Communications, Cox Communications and Hospitality Network.
Acacia also announced Wednesday that it had retained the services of The Anne McBride Company Inc. to provide strategic investor relations and financial communications counsel for Acacia Technologies.
According to Paul Ryan, CEO of Acacia, the new addition will assist in expanding the company's shareholder base.
