What we don't know is why each of the companies settled. Was it because they feared total destruction at the hands of an impregnable patent portfolio, against which each and every device they'd ever made totally and completely and egregiously infringed? Or maybe because an aspect of one patent, say, could reasonably be said to convince a jury that x-million dollars' worth of that company's products were definitely liable for infringement?

In other words, maybe these companies haven't setled because they ate at every stop on the smorgasboard, but because they have banana cream pie showing at the corners of their mouths. In some cases, hundred of thousand or millions of mouths.

So, too, might a future settlement w/the Texas litigants transpire -- we owe you for some, maybe, but not all. So instrad of xyz million, here's pq million, plus w hundred thousand for r number of years.

I sincerely hope, however, they have salad bar all over them, not just the dessert section, and I hope they're also all over 12 and under 65...no more discounts!

JMHO.