Acacia Resarch Corp. is another one of those companies that has applied for -- and received -- so-called junk patents. These are patents on things that are already commonly used today, and companies like Acacia have the patents so that they can sue people and gets lots of money out of it. In this case, Acacia claims the patent on streaming video. Streaming video is probably one of the backbones of Internet multimedia, along with the JPEG image and Macromedia Flash. Acacia insists that companies which use streaming video without paying Acacia a fee are in violation of the law:

"Property rights are as important as the right to free speech," [Acacia executive vice president Robert] Berman told AVNOnline.com July 6. "For example, if someone broke into your garage and stole your SUV, and put a speaker on the top, and was driving around the neighborhood making some political statement, trying to get your SUV back wouldn't be trying to stifle free speech, it would be you trying to get your property back. If somebody is using your property, you have a right to stop them or receive a license or receive royalties."

Berman's analogy fails because everyone recognizes the legitimacy of my ownership of my SUV. A lot of people, however, don't recognize the legitimacy of Acacia's ownership of the patent on streaming video.

That, said EFF staff attorney Jason Schultz, is "possibly the most twisted and contorted analogy I have ever heard," saying it shows Acacia and similar companies -- other EFF frivolous patent candidates include Clear Channel, Nintendo, Ideaflood, Firepond, and Acceris -- conflate physical property with dreams of intellectual property.

"There's no question now that an SUV in your garage is something you own. But here there's a real question as to whether Acacia actually invented anything new or simply is claiming monopoly on technology that millions of people use every day to express themselves," Schultz told AVNOnline.com.

Lest you think that Acacia is merely exercising its rights as a patent-holder, think again. There is a systematic method to its attempts to strongarm companies into buying licenses from it. "Acacia has pursued this patent by targetting porn companies and extracting settlements in order to fund a war-chest that it is now using to sue bigger media entities -- presumably this trail ends with orgs like the BBC, CBC, and Live365," writes Cory Doctrow of Boing Boing.

Why haven't we heard about this patent before? Presumably because Acacia didn't invent streaming video technology. Like SCO, it is, perhaps, a storehouse of patents, and it makes money by getting licensing fees out of companies using that patented technology. Is SCO contributing new ideas and inventions to the world? Nope; it just makes money through litigation.