My thought is that if DM has raised the bar enough, then there should be no settlements prior to the Markman decision.

It does seem at this point that the defendants are committed to resolving the claim terms in their favor and hopefully settling after Markman for next to nothing (much less than what DM is probably asking for right now - and well worth the price of their defense).

However if it goes our way, then watch the defendants fall all over themselves to settle before spending a lot more to go to trial. Hopefully DM has been and will be able to strike that magical price point - too expensive to settle before Markman, but still much less than the cost of going to trial.... AND to risk losing potentially paying much more.

THEN they can use a positive Markman ruling to beat about 50 or so new defendants over the head with for round 3. That's my dream anyway.

- Sinkman