"TRANSMETA recieved 250 million dollar cash settlement in october 2007.The markman trial has been slated for december 2008."

As I read it, the Markman was dated for Dec 2007 with trial to follow in Dec 2008.

I can not find the reference in your post for the OCT 2007 license agreements prior the Dec 2007 Markman.

What ever the case, with regard to Markman...it came down to a tight time line , IMO, it influenced Intel to settle with out a black eye.

Or defendant has a bit of time to sit around ....Intel had one year to sit around and if they settled before a judges Markman ruling in OCT....they only had 10 months.

doni