Acacia Sues 15 More Cable Operators

Acacia Research Corp. said it has sued 15 additional cable operators for alleged patent infringement, and it added Mediacom Communications Corp.’s Mediacom LLC subsidiary to a suit that it has pending in Northern California.

Acacia -- which has patents used for video-on-demand programming and technology for transmitting analog channels over a digital network -- recently signed license deals with small operators Seren Innovations Inc. in Minneapolis, B&C Cablevision in Florida, Boulder Ridge Cable TV in Colorado and Central Valley Cable TV in California.

The company said Monday that it sued another 15 small operators in Arizona, Minnesota and Ohio: Cable One Inc., U.S. Cable, WideOpenWest LLC, Armstrong Group, Arvig Communication Systems, Block Communications Inc., Cable America Corp., Cable System Services Inc., Cannon Valley Communications Inc., East Cleveland Cable TV and Communications, Loretel Cablevision, Massillon Communications Inc., San Carlos Cablevision, Savage Communications Inc. and Sjoberg’s Cablevision Inc.

Acacia also has suits pending against Cox Communications Inc., Comcast Corp., Charter Communications Inc., EchoStar Communications Corp. and DirecTV Inc.