In article <gr0isq$dp...@blue.rahul.net>, c.c.ei...@xrexxmicro.usenet.us.com (Rahul Dhesi) wrote: > If Ballmer and Microsoft won a major amount, they would brag about it. > If Tom-Tom was able to persuade Ballmer and Microsoft to keep that > amount secret, then Tom-Tom must have had significant bargaining power. > If Tom-Tom had significant bargaining power, then it's unlikely that > Ballmer and Microsoft won a major amount.
By your argument, the lack of TomTom bragging shows it wasn't a small amount. Of course TomTom had significant bargaining power. They could have said they would not settle without an NDA. Assuming valid, infringed patents, there is still a good chance that if Microsoft had won at trial, the damages would not be significantly more than their litigation costs. And it would take years of appeals to actually collect. The most likely settlement amount is something in the ballpark of what Microsoft normally licenses these patents for. -- --Tim Smith _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
