Newport Beach-based Acacia Research, a firm that licenses and acquires patents, said today that it has hired Jonathan Taub as Vice President. Taub joins Acacia from Microsoft, where he was the firm's Director of Strategic Alliances for the Mobile and Embedded Devices division. Taub has also served at Nortel Networks, and served as an intellectual property and corporate law Associate at Covington & Burling. Acacia Research purchases patents and licenses those patents to other companies.