And for the 16 companies that did settle, the verdict may not change anything. In most cases, these licensing agreements have language that makes them nearly impossible to get out of, no matter what happens with the patent later on. This week, we heard back from a spokesman from one of the companies that chose to settle.
The spokesman wrote in an email, quote, "We were hit hard by this lawsuit. Infringement on our part seemed completely bogus, but we could not afford to fight it. Even with the settlement, we were forced to lay off employees. We are still--" and "still" is in all caps-- "still paying out on the settlement agreement. We were unaware that the patent had been invalidated. We will be contacting our attorney to see what recourse we may have."
It looks like in this case, it was more due to the licensee's inattention than a winning legal argument. (Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common occurrence, no matter what the law says.) I'd be curious to know what happened once they did contact their lawyer.
