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Stockholders' Equity (Details) (USD $)
0 Months Ended 3 Months Ended 12 Months Ended
Feb. 21, 2012
Mar. 31, 2015
Dec. 31, 2014
Dec. 31, 2013
Dec. 31, 2012
Nov. 15, 2013
Nov. 16, 2012
Stockholders Equity [Line Items]              
Gross proceeds from the sale of common stock $ 225,000,000actg_GrossProceedsFromIssuanceOfCommonStock            
Sale of common stock, price per share $ 36.75us-gaap_SaleOfStockPricePerShare            
Proceeds from Issuance of Common Stock     0us-gaap_ProceedsFromIssuanceOfCommonStock 0us-gaap_ProceedsFromIssuanceOfCommonStock 218,961,000us-gaap_ProceedsFromIssuanceOfCommonStock    
Stock repurchase program, authorized amount           70,000,000us-gaap_StockRepurchaseProgramAuthorizedAmount1 100,000,000us-gaap_StockRepurchaseProgramAuthorizedAmount1
Dividends declared, per share     $ 0.50us-gaap_CommonStockDividendsPerShareDeclared        
Common stock dividends declared, quarterly   $ 0.125actg_Commonstockdividendsdeclaredquarterly $ 0.125actg_Commonstockdividendsdeclaredquarterly        
Sale of common stock, value     (25,039,000)us-gaap_StockIssuedDuringPeriodValueNewIssues (18,633,000)us-gaap_StockIssuedDuringPeriodValueNewIssues      
Payments of Dividends     25,039,000us-gaap_PaymentsOfDividends 18,633,000us-gaap_PaymentsOfDividends 0us-gaap_PaymentsOfDividends    
Dividends, payment date   Mar. 30, 2015          
Dividends, record date   Mar. 02, 2015          
Common Stock [Member]              
Stockholders Equity [Line Items]              
Sale of common stock, shares       0us-gaap_StockIssuedDuringPeriodSharesNewIssues
/ us-gaap_StatementEquityComponentsAxis
= us-gaap_CommonStockMember
6,122,449us-gaap_StockIssuedDuringPeriodSharesNewIssues
/ us-gaap_StatementEquityComponentsAxis
= us-gaap_CommonStockMember
   
Sale of common stock, value       $ 0us-gaap_StockIssuedDuringPeriodValueNewIssues
/ us-gaap_StatementEquityComponentsAxis
= us-gaap_CommonStockMember
$ 6,000us-gaap_StockIssuedDuringPeriodValueNewIssues
/ us-gaap_StatementEquityComponentsAxis
= us-gaap_CommonStockMember