There has been a lot of discussion on whether yesterday’s announcement was Nikon or some other company. Since we’ve only had three settlement PRs so far, and no definite pattern of release has been established yet, it is difficult to know for sure. I see only three possibilities concerning who the company is: [1] Nikon, [2] another current defendant, or [3] a company we have not yet sued.

[1]: Nikon seems the most likely to me because it follows a similar timeline with the Casio PACER and PR releases and because we are expecting the Nikon PR. Casio PR was discovered on 21 Nov 08 and then a PR 11 days later. Nikon PR was discovered on 17 Dec 08 and then a PR 22 days later. Those two seem in sync with each other pattern-wise.

[2]: If the announcement was related to another current defendant, it followed the same release pattern as the LG settlement. On 25 Sep 08 we had our first licensing/settlement PR with an unnamed company and then 19 days later the PACER filing was found with LG named. I feel this ‘backwards’ release was due to it being our very first Flash-R licensing and EDIG wanted to publicly announce the validation of their IP before anyone could find it on PACER and steal their thunder.

[3]: The announcement clearly says it was a settlement agreement. This to me implies it has to be a current defendant and that they ‘settled’ their legal differences by coming to an agreement. If it was a company who saw the writing on the wall and proactively contacted EDIG, I don’t believe the settlement language would be in the PR. It would simply say they have negotiated a licensing agreement with an unnamed company.

Just my opinion...would LOVE to be wrong and have it be some new licensee other than Nikon.