I've been giving this some thought..... (always a scary proposition!). I've decided to share it here to see whether anyone thinks it might have merit (probably a long shot - are these enough warnings to take what I simply ask with a grain of salt?!)
Is it possible that the "project" referred to in the filing re: the newest Agreement has something to do with ARM?
Was this ARM acquisition a catalyst for this agreement?
From the Agreement filing:
"Pursuant to the Agreement, MMP Licensing LLC will provide commercialization services to PDS for commercialization of the Moore Microprocessor Patent portfolio (the "MMP Portfolio") with respect to certain companies (the "Project"). PDS also granted a license to MMP Licensing LLC for the commercialization of the MMP Portfolio."
While I have absolutely no idea of the specific terms of the ARM/SoftBank acquisition agreement, particularly with regard to "outstanding liabilities", I do know that it is commonplace that, in such deals, the Seller (ARM) must eliminate all outstanding portential liabilities (i.e., "unquantified Risk"). The Buyer wants to know exactly what he/she's actually buying, after all, and certainly does not want to acquire "unquantified Risk".
More in direct response to your original email, where you ask "Wouldn't it have been nice to have an active claim against ARM to be settled .......", I would think that ARM must have been legally notified of infringement of the MMP long ago. Of course, like some 80-85% of the population of infringers notified, ARM just ignored us (probably hoping we'd just go away). And if the Notification isn't good enough, assuming there was one, then we could file suit to get their (and SoftBank's) attention.
If there is any merit to my thought of how ARM may now have great incentive to settle/license to remove this minor (in the scheme of things, considering the money involved) hurdle, this may be the "Project" that MMP LLC is engaged in. We may actually have some leverage here. Maybe....
FWIW,
SGE
