Reuters has a short story here.
Under the settlement, which includes the dismissal of the patent suit, Google will license a patent held by Overture Services, which Yahoo acquired last year. The dispute over that patent had threatened Google’s lucrative AdWords program, which serves up ads with search results linked to certain keywords.
In its complaint filed in April 2002, Overture alleged that Google’s keyword system violated its 2001 patent entitled “system and method for influencing a position on a search result list generated by a computer network search engine.”
Google will issue Class A stock for the patent license and to settle a dispute over a warrant issued to Yahoo to purchase Google shares. The companies did not elaborate.
And the Businesswire press release is here.
One of the most significant lawsuits standing in the way of Google’s future is now gone, Google now has a license to Overture’s IP, and Yahoo garnered another 2.7 million shares of its competitor’s stock. Was it a good deal? Hard to say, but I’m looking forward to seeing the details of that license.
Now in terms of the delayed IPO, we’ve read it was technology, then investors, is this the real reason?
I believe the answer is yes. This settlement had to be in the works. Since time was working against Google they most likely settled upward on some on the licensing totals. I can’t wait to see the wording either. Potential investors in Google should be made aware of the terms ASAP.