Sprint Nextel, Acacia unit settle patent suit

A subsidiary of Acacia Research Corp. and Sprint Nextel Corp. have settled a lawsuit alleging that Sprint Nextel had infringed on patents for technology used to display mobile vehicle information on maps.

The suit was pending in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.

In a release Wednesday, Acacia (Nasdaq: ACTG), based in Newport Beach, said that its Telematics Corp. subsidiary had agreed to the settlement.

According to the suit, the alleged infringement involved four separate patents. Also named as defendants are United Parcel Service Co. (NYS: UPS), @Road Inc. (Nasdaq: ARDI), Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Ryder System Inc. (NYS: R), Teletrac Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Xata Corp.

Sprint Nextel has corporate headquarters in Reston, Va