ACACIA STARTS SUING WI-FI OPERATORS - Alternately titled "Man, Are They Keeping The Attorneys Busy Over There" - Wi-Fi hotspot operators must pay $1,000 a year or face a lawsuit from a patent enforcement firm. Acacia Technologies Group says it is enforcing a patent it says covers the methods wireless ISPs, WLAN aggregators and other Wi-Fi networks use to redirect users to a common login Web page. The company claims it owns the technology behind gateway page redirection.

A Wi-Fi hotspot customer requesting a Web page will often be first redirected to such a page where the user can be authenticated with a username and password before being sent to the Web site initially requested.

The Newport Beach, Calif.-based company is sending out information packets to Wi-Fi operators informing them of the patent claim and including a licensing agreement. Companies have 30 days to either ask questions, sign the licensing pact, or prove to Acacia the wireless operator is not infringing the patent.

The licensing pact demands hotspot operators pay Acacia $1,000 a year for up to 3,500 redirected connections. After which, operators would have to pay 5 to 15 cents for each redirected connection.

"Anybody who operates a hotspot with redirection can assume they'll hear from us," Acacia's executive vice president of business development and general counsel Rob Berman told Wi-Fi Networking News.