Upon further thought, may I suggest that not unlike other business offers, when negotiations on license cost reach a certain point, the licensor provides a firm offer for a certain time period, afterwich the offer expires. The signings subsequent to the settlement were in the works as firm offers have been made and made known to the defendants and probably allowed for in the NDA.

What defendants would have wanted to protect against is TPL cutting the price and creating a rush of new licenses giving a certain impression to the general public. Opty