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Income Taxes (Details) (USD $)
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2014
Dec. 31, 2013
Dec. 31, 2012
Dec. 31, 2011
Income Taxes [Line Items]        
Income tax benefit from release of valuation allowance     $ (10,651,000)us-gaap_ValuationAllowancesAndReservesChargedToCostAndExpense  
Operating loss carryforwards, federal 118,715,000actg_OperatingLossCarryforwardsFederal      
Operating loss carryforwards, state 129,632,000actg_OperatingLossCarryforwardsState      
Deferred tax assets, valuation allowance 35,927,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsValuationAllowance 7,585,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsValuationAllowance    
Federal NOL annual utilization limit 14,100,000actg_FederalNolAnnualUtilizationLimit      
Net operating losses, unrecognized excess tax benefits, federal 1,928,000actg_NetOperatingLossesUnrecognizedExcessTaxBenefitsFederal      
Net operating losses, unrecognized excess tax benefits, state 37,771,000actg_NetOperatingLossesUnrecognizedTaxBenefitsState      
Foreign withholding taxes 5,159,000actg_ForeignWithholdingTaxes 4,605,000actg_ForeignWithholdingTaxes 11,890,000actg_ForeignWithholdingTaxes  
Excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation 0us-gaap_ExcessTaxBenefitFromShareBasedCompensationFinancingActivities (1,398,000)us-gaap_ExcessTaxBenefitFromShareBasedCompensationFinancingActivities 13,210,000us-gaap_ExcessTaxBenefitFromShareBasedCompensationFinancingActivities  
Adjustments to Additional Paid in Capital, Income Tax Benefit from Share-based Compensation 2,713,000us-gaap_AdjustmentsToAdditionalPaidInCapitalTaxEffectFromShareBasedCompensation 1,398,000us-gaap_AdjustmentsToAdditionalPaidInCapitalTaxEffectFromShareBasedCompensation 13,210,000us-gaap_AdjustmentsToAdditionalPaidInCapitalTaxEffectFromShareBasedCompensation  
Foreign tax credits, additional paid in capital benefit 29,877,000actg_ForeignTaxCreditsAdditionalPaidInCapitalBenefit      
Foreign tax credits utilized for financial statement purposes 20,313,000actg_Foreigntaxcreditsutilizedforfinancialstatementpurposes      
Effective Income Tax Rate Reconciliation, Percent 6.00%us-gaap_EffectiveIncomeTaxRateContinuingOperations (27.00%)us-gaap_EffectiveIncomeTaxRateContinuingOperations 27.00%us-gaap_EffectiveIncomeTaxRateContinuingOperations  
Effective tax rate excluding valuation allowance (33.00%)actg_Effectivetaxrateexcludingvaluationallowance 31.00%actg_Effectivetaxrateexcludingvaluationallowance 40.00%actg_Effectivetaxrateexcludingvaluationallowance  
Unrecognized tax benefits 2,127,000us-gaap_UnrecognizedTaxBenefits 2,127,000us-gaap_UnrecognizedTaxBenefits 2,127,000us-gaap_UnrecognizedTaxBenefits 85,000us-gaap_UnrecognizedTaxBenefits
unrecognized tax benefits primarily associated with state taxes 85,000actg_UnrecognizedTaxBenefitsPrimarilyAssociatedWithStateTaxes      
Domestic Tax Authority [Member]        
Income Taxes [Line Items]        
Net operating losses included in deferred tax assets 0us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsOperatingLossCarryforwards
/ us-gaap_IncomeTaxAuthorityAxis
= us-gaap_DomesticCountryMember		      
State and Local Jurisdiction [Member]        
Income Taxes [Line Items]        
Net operating losses included in deferred tax assets 441,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsOperatingLossCarryforwards
/ us-gaap_IncomeTaxAuthorityAxis
= us-gaap_StateAndLocalJurisdictionMember		      
Capital Loss Carryforward Related to Business Acquisition [Member] | Internal Revenue Service (IRS) [Member]        
Income Taxes [Line Items]        
Operating Loss Carryforwards $ 29,318,000us-gaap_OperatingLossCarryforwards
/ us-gaap_IncomeTaxAuthorityAxis
= us-gaap_InternalRevenueServiceIRSMember
/ us-gaap_TaxCreditCarryforwardAxis
= actg_CapitalLossCarryforwardRelatedToBusinessAcquisitionMember