If that's true, Microsoft got a great deal. :)
Are you sure? Do you know what is the amount of money exchanged between two large corporations when signing a large cross-licensing patent arrangement? What is the usual percentage paid if a single patent is licensed?
My figures are now somewhat out of date, but for example, most of Snow White and the Seven dwarfs had cross-patent licensing arrangments with no money involved (anybody here old enough to name the seven dwarfs?).
The usual percentage paid for patent licensing is 1% of price. So $300million presumes sales of $30 billion in violating products....
So if anything $300mill sounds too high. Now, when you are trying to save your megacorporation from being broken into pieces by the DoJ, I wouldn't be surprised if M$ paid as much as $1bill in fifty easy installments....
The exception to the above rule is when patent violation infringes over a main stay product, such as M$ violation of stacker, which was completely unintentional (meaning they were unaware that the technology was patented, the copying was, of course, on purpose). |
