The slowdown in licensing might well be fully attributable to the USPTO actions, but it may also be possible that Alliacense weren't pressurizing or reducing the asking price pending the final outcomes of the re-examinations. Companies might have been requesting more time to finalize higher fees until their own revenues/profits had stabilized.

It is impossible to say with any degree of certainty what variables influence the decision to license or not.

The one problem with your refusal to license argument is that the door to litigate is still wide open in Germany.

For all those that haven't licensed, are they 100% sure that '336 is now beyond confirmation, having read the examiner's grounds? Or, are their engineers advising them differently?

Stay tuned, this still has a long way to go, in my humble opinion.

Be well