The InterNext patent panel followed the search engine panel, which carried a packed room. As people were exiting, the speakers for the patent panel (Spike Goldberg of Home Grown Video, Greg Clayman of Video Secrets, and Brandon Shalton of FightThePatent.com) took their places on the stage.The InterNext patent panel followed the search engine panel, which carried a packed room. As people were exiting, the speakers for the patent panel (Spike Goldberg of Home Grown Video, Greg Clayman of Video Secrets, and Brandon Shalton of FightThePatent.com) took their places on the stage. Those that stayed filled about 20% of the room. Attendees of InterNext paid an extra fee to access the seminars, which could partially explain the low turnout, but then there were other panels that had larger gatherings.
Brandon started the panel with his opening statement:
“Leo Buscaglia once said, ’Don’t give advice. The wise don’t need it and the foolish won’t heed it’. None of us on the panel are here to give advice; we are not attorneys … we are not anti-patent. Patents are very valid to protect intellectual property.”
The panel opened up to questions from the audience. Those who attended truly were concerned about patent issues, and their attendance and questions were welcomed by the panel. The panel answered questions dealing with the validity of certain patents, to current defendants in patent-related lawsuits, to possible new patent cases, to possible solutions. Most of the panel’s time was spent answering questions and providing comments to the theme of the seminar, which was “How will the adult industry face patent issues?” The 50-minute session went by very quickly, with the informal answer to the seminar’s prime question being that Webmasters will deal or not deal with these issues individually. Patent holders such as Acacia would be able to roll-over companies if it weren’t for the few defendants in the defense group who are fighting against Acacia’s patent claims.
Brandon put in a plug for Webmasters to join the IMPA (http://www.impai.org) as a way of organizing with a group of other concerned Webmasters to be able to confront current and future issues.
Those following the Acacia saga are waiting to see what happens on the opening day of the Markman hearing, scheduled for February 6th. The Markman hearing is where Acacia presents its claims of patent infringement by the defendants, and the defendants have the opportunity to present why it does not apply. The purpose of the hearing is to give the judge some oversight to the issues that also includes the presentation of some prior art evidence.
Patent law gives a patent holder a monopoly on its patented invention. You can stop people from using your invention or have them pay licenses to use it.
As we have seen with Acacia, interpreting a patent to be broader than what the patent reads gives the advantage to the patent holder, to be tested only in a court of law for companies with deep enough pockets to come to the litigation table. Patents like those held by Acacia could be used to weed out competition, hence my new definition of “industry leaders” as not ones looking out for the best of all Webmasters including competitors, but more of those who have the bigger pieces of the pie. If 80% of the market makes up 20% of the overall money pie, then those 80% need to band together in the face of competition, or become squeezed out.
Acacia and patents are just some of the first issues that will affect both large and small adult industry players in 2004. This is the new adult business. From my vantage point of six years observing and lurking, times have definitely changed.
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