Officials from Acacia Research Corp. [ACTG, CBMX] today said the company’s Acacia Media Technologies Corp. subsidiary filed suit a lawsuit in the District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging infringement of Acacia’s DMT patents by nine cable and satellite television companies. The defendants named in the suit include Comcast Corp. [CMCSA], Charter Communications Inc. [CHTR], The DirecTV Group Inc. [DTV], EchoStar Communications Corp. [DISH], Boulder Ridge Cable TV, Central Valley Cable TV LLC, Seren Innovations Inc., Cox Communications Inc. [COX] and Hospitality Network Inc.

Acacia’s DMT patents cover the transmission and receipt of digital content via the Internet, cable, satellite and other means and, as the suit alleges, it applies to a variety of programming and activities engaged in by cable and satellite companies. Those activities include certain basic programming, pay per view, video on demand and digital ad insertion.