Burst.com, Inc. has signed an agreement in principle to settle its case against Apple, Inc. ending almost 2 years of litigation. Apple agreed to pay Burst a one-time payment of $10 million cash in exchange for a non-exclusive license to Burst’s patent portfolio, not including one issued U.S. patent and 3 pending U.S. patent applications related to new DVR technology. Burst agreed not to sue Apple for any future infringement of the DVR patent and any patents that might issue from the pending DVR-related applications.
The $10 million patent license provides Apple with the right to use Burst’s intellectual property in its own technology and products, without further consideration. Burst, however, retains the right to enforce its patent portfolio against others.
Burst plans to continue identifying and evaluating companies who represent licensing opportunities and intends to diligently pursue those likely to yield suitable returns. Burst does not plan to announce specific names of suspected infringing products or companies in advance of negotiating with them or filing litigation to enforce its patent rights. Burst does not plan to publicly release any internal assessments of market segment size or dollar value of those markets, although it believes that they are significant enough to warrant the aggressive pursuit of patent licensing.
Originally posted on November 27, 2007 @ 10:28 am