I'm obviously not posting much anymore (nor following as closely as I once did), but thought I'd chime in after reading your post which confuses me somewhat.
First, I admit that whining does no good whatsoever - and I have not cluttered the board with such sentiments for some time. Second, I haven't seen much in the way of whining or complaints at least lately. This board seems pretty darn positive to me - especially compared to years past.
But on this one issue, that of settlements in general, I don't see how it can be argued any other way. Someone explain to me how any settlement has benefitted any shareholder to date? And by that I mean financially through share price appreciation - not by the company surviving to sue another day. Maybe someday lightning will yet strike and everyone can say the many years of low settlements were all part of the plan and ultimately worth it. But that has not happened yet... and it's been not happening long enough by now that it amazes me that anyone gets excited by ANY settlement anymore.
For the last few years I've been following real court cases of several companies trying to monetize patents against Apple, Google, etc.. They've been getting their collective butts kicked either by the PTAB or by the CAFC effectively throwing out their winning jury verdicts. Patent monetization is now next to impossible. The big tech companies are effectively 'reverse patent trolls' stealing IP at will without any repurcussion.
I will say that EDIG's IP is interesting and IMO has value, but I think they're basically giving it away for fractions of pennies on the dollar all at the expense of shareholders. Whatever they're doing, it must be working for the company and the lawyers... but it's clearly not working out for us shareholders. Aside from saying: 'but maybe someday it will', I don't see how anyone can think these low-dollar settlements are a positive.
I truly hope that something is somehow brewing with Google or whomever and that the new directors are working toward getting the company sold or making some deal that would afford us all 0.25 cents per share or something significant like that. But I remember everyone getting all excited about an Apple 'settlement' some years back and of course we know now that it yielded absolutely nothing. Given our history, it's a safe bet that whatever we speculate could be going on now will most likely turn out to be nothing as well. Yes, I'm a little ray of sunshine (as my wife calls me).
I remember calls for patience going back many years now. I remember when LL's mid-2005 guess was over two years in the future (as we all whined about it). I'm out of patience but there's simply no other choice. I continue to follow EDIG because I still own shares - no point in selling, and because it remains an interesting story. I do apprecicate those here who continue DD and share it with everyone. There's still some small chance that things will improve, but I've given up any hope of recovering what I've lost to date. It's certainly been an experience though.
- Sinkman
