University of Wyoming officials face tough choice in patent payment demands from CA company

Technology commonly used to send prerecorded educational lectures over the Internet is at the center of a dispute between a California firm and an array of universities, including the University of Wyoming.

The Acacia Technologies group of Acacia Research Corp. in Newport Beach, Calif., has written letters to UW officials seeking a licensing fee for patented devices used in creating so-called compressed video.

UW officials contend the Acacia-owned patents are too vague and ambiguous to be enforced. They say the question confronting the university is whether to pay what it considers an unjust fee or face the much greater expense of a court battle.

"There is some risk associated with not paying, because we don’t know where it would turn out in court,” said Robert Aylward, UW vice president for information technology. “This is one of those things where you can pay a relatively small price and make it go away, but in my mind it’s an issue of principle. It’s essentially extortion.”

By W. DALE NELSON
Star-Tribune correspondent

Full Story: http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/02/05/news/wyoming/9e0c37edf077c7898725710b007df863.txt