Jones,
Further to what you wrote, Rossi's stated plan is to win the commercial
battle by selling first, selling it so cheaply it is not worth competing
with the "name" brand. In order to do this he has to have a patent to
protect against others stopping him through their patents. The court
battles for something this lucrative will probably extend beyond his
life time, but he doesn't care if he can sell E-Cats meanwhile.
It will be interesting to see what new patents he comes up with. He
seems genuinely excited by the E-Cat X so this is probably a new twist.