Re: Acacia Internet Access Redirection

Jacob S. Barrett wrote:
> Today I received an information packet from Acacia Technologies Group 
> informing me that I was in volation of their patent on "IAR" [1].  IAR is a 
> US Patent 6,226,677 [2].  That packet suggest that I must license their 
> technology or face legal action.  Has anyone else received this same 
> extortion letter?
> 
> The claims the the patent text lead me to believe they don't have much to 
> stand on.  If I read the abstract and claim one correctly then it doesn't 
> cover a system that doesn't change the destination address.  Any solution 
> that uses the IPFW fwd [3] rule would not modify the destination address and 
> therefore does not meet claim 1.  I'm I correct in my logic?
> 
> What are your takes on this matter?
> 
> References:
> 1) http://www.acaciatechnologies.com/technology_iar.htm
> 2) 
> http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,226,677.WKU.&OS=PN/6,226,677&RS=PN/6,226,677
> 3) 
> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ipfw&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+4.10-stable&format=html

IANAL, and this isn't legal advice.  If you want a legal opinion (and 
such things are good if you're staring down the barrel of an 
infringement case, since it could get you out of a "willfull 
infringement" case), you should buy one, from a lawyer.

All that said,  this is covered elsewhere.  I answered similar questions 
on BAWUG yesterday:

http://www.mail-archive.com/wireless%40lists.bawug.org/msg06739.html

Glenn and Nancy are reporting on same as well:

http://wifinetnews.com/archives/004184.html

Nigel Ballard has received a letter as well.

Jim