Acacia

Background:
Acacia Technologies Group (NASDAQ: ACTG) licenses its DMT and V-Chip technologies to media and electronics companies. Acacia acquires and licenses technology patents to other companies. The DMT technology covers the transmission and receipt of digital audio and digital video content, commonly known as audio-on-demand, video-on-demand, and audio/video streaming, and is supported by 5 U.S. and 31 foreign patents. ATG is located in Newport Beach, Calif.

Strategy/Tactics:
Acacia is controversial, in that many believe their legal tactics are questionable. So, INK's strategy was to raise general awareness of the company and to give the CEO a platform for explaining why the type of business they conduct is important and valuable amidst the controversy. Acacia acquires patent for an inventor's idea. Then, Acacia goes to a large company such as Direct TV and tells them to pay them money for using their patented idea. People say they troll for patents & extort businesses for money; however, Acacia says it protects the little guy from getting his idea stolen from the big guy. For example, one inventor was ignored by companies that were using his patented idea. So, Acacia came to this inventor, signed him up and then went after the company to pursue his money. Sometimes, Acacia negotiates and sometimes, it will file a lawsuit. Acacia reached an agreement with many large companies. Acacia and the inventor split the money; so, now the inventor is getting paid.

Results:
Acacia was a challenge because it primarily wanted to be covered in the business media, but it is a very small public company. It was difficult to get any of those business media outlets to pay attention to a small, but interesting company. So, instead of trying to get media to do stories on company, INK offered up Acacia's CEO as expert to comment on high profile patent related cases that were being covered by the media, such as BlackBerry & Ebay. He talked about what the legal rulings meant for every side including the inventor and the business. In a period of 60 days, INK had Acacia's CEO on CNBC three times.

ACACIA
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