It's quite all right to agree to disagree...that's one of the benefits of a discussion board such as this and I also respect your opinion and desire to want to look through some rose colored glasses.

I'm only coming from some past experiences with situations like this, which I admit have been only number around 3-4...so that makes me no expert.

You ask would they risk going to court...we're already in court they took us there first, the question is whether they will drag this out as long as they can and then reach some sort of "settlement" right before trial...which is what happens in the vast majority of cases and also usually is accompanied by some statement of ..we admit no infringement..we'll pay you but admit nothing

Remember the accused infringer always wants of delay as long as possible and will do most anything to get the patent holder to spend his cash on legal bills...hoping to gain at least a foothold in negotiations for a lower fee at the minimum or, at best, a trial with 12 mostly unexperienced people who will be inundated with technical material that most, if not all, really will not comprehend in a short trial period.

Other things will affect the happenings too, ie: will the judge move the trial to Eastern Texas or not, will the demand for licensing fees be so high that 1-2MM in legal expense ( if they don't have already a retainer fee for their lawyers) cause them to fight it out in court and take their chances of at least getting it reduced , will they appeal any trial decision, if they lose, at every level possible just to delay payment...etc,.etc. etc....all this will figure in on what is the effect of just getting all of our reexams back unscathed or diminished in any way on our PPS.

My only concern is point out that just getting reexams finished in our favor does not open the floodgates for settlements esp. if the accused infringer is willing to slug it out...we can hope with reexams in our hands they will see the fruitlessness of their actions and settle, but that's not always the case and we should be prepared for what could be a longer than expected time period for higher license fees to materialize