MUMBAI: Acacia Technologies Group's wholly owned subsidiary KY Data Systems, LLC and Sony Corporation have entered a non-exclusive license covering a portfolio of patents that apply to interactive television.

The patents cover receivers such as set-top boxes (STB) and certain televisions used in digital satellite and digital cable systems that permit television viewers to access interactive television features supplied by their satellite and cable providers as part of their digital programming packages.

Data, which is associated with the interactive television features and is broadcast along with the video signal, is extracted and processed by components within the receivers, and is then made available to viewers who choose to access the interactive television features through their remote control.

Acacia Technologies group is a part of Acacia Research Corporation, which also comprises another operating groups - CombiMatrix. The Acacia Technologies group develops, acquires, and licenses patented technologies.

Acacia controls 30 patent portfolios, which include 128 US patents and certain foreign counterparts, covering technologies used in a wide variety of industries including audio/video enhancement and synchronisation, broadcast data retrieval, computer memory cache coherency, credit card fraud protection, database management, data encryption and product activation, digital media transmission (DMT(R)), digital video production, dynamic manufacturing modeling, enhanced Internet navigation, image resolution enhancement, interactive data sharing, interactive television, Internet access redirection, interstitial Internet advertising, laptop docking station connectivity, microprocessor enhancement, multi-dimensional bar codes, network data storage, resource scheduling, rotational video imaging and spreadsheet automation.