You wrote..

"Yes srandl, the German validation has been the turning point in the licensing effort. But yes the unknown- how much is the German validation worth?"

In my opinion the German vailidation is worth plenty. Any large international company worth their salt does business here (being the "workshop of the world"). It should keep us awash in licenses for some time to come. The way that I see it..the USPTO is the nail in the coffin and would act as an additonal net for those companies that only do business in the US.

AIMO