I tend to agree with you as I have posted. I think the settlement, while apparently for less than we all expected, was done for certain strategic reasons, and that cash was traded for strategic advantage.

That being said, I think it's important to point out, that in about 3 years, and more accurately, in a little over 2.4 years (if you exclude AMD & Intel), the MMP has brought in $242.77 MILLION DOLLARS that we know about. That from somewhere between 37 to 42 licenses, depending on whether Feb licenses were included. All of that done while under the threat of legal challenge and for the most part under the USPTO re-exam challenge and unresolved validation process.

These fees have been gotten from companies with annual revenues in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to nearly $100 BILLION. Some of these licenses are from the top 15 electronics companies in the WORLD, and some from the smallers scale companies. That's between $5.7M and $6.6M per license on average. Considering there have been between 400 and 500 companies put on notice of infringement according to PTSC / TPL, we have collecte less than 10% of the possible fees, and have done so under arguably very adverse conditions legally due to the legal and USPTO battles. There are arguably over $2.1B to $2.3B or even MORE in fees to be collected if rates remained just as they are. That's not a bad scenario. To date, the ONLY company that has WON a battle over licensing with us is ARM, and that's not a done deal....just yet.

Granted, we may get screwed by the USPTO, and end up with only this money to date, but more likely than not, the USPTO will re-validate and the patents will come out of the process almost invincible. With the money in hand to get us this far and allow us other options, and a strengthened MMP, a very positive Markman Ruling in our pocket, and another 350 to ??? more companies to get money from, there is so much potential, and in many ways, very LITTLE to complain and be concerned about.

I'm not saying everything is rosy, but by the same token, strategic advantage or not, over $100M just to PTSC in less than 3 years, is pretty dang good, and the likelihood is that it's going to get a lot better. We've now got a CEO who has experience in transforming companies and some pretty good BOD members with hopes for replacing those who we think could be better served to step away from PTSC at this point.

While it seems like a long road for many, and I know it HAS been for many here, 9 years, or 3 years, or a bit over 2 years as from my perspective, isn't THAT long, and considering that the POTENTIAL hasn't really been diminished, and is probably only going to be enhanced, the long term strategy you state, may not be that long in the future, or even that much of a "give in" on TPL/PTSC's side in the settlements.