I suppose this outcome was inevitable. MS couldn't afford the bad publicity of an all-out litigation, and would have perhaps risked a ruling that would render a

I suppose this outcome was inevitable. MS couldn't afford the bad publicity of an all-out litigation, and would have perhaps risked a ruling that would render all software patents worthless. TomTom was in a worse position though: if they'd lost the battle, MS might have demanded an agreement that wasn't GPL-compatible (see point 7 in GPLv2), and this would have meant the end of TomTom's business - full stop. So it sounds like now there's a mostly undisclosed agreement, which is a great outcome for MS: they get friendly publicity for being soft on TomTom, but the case is still feeding the FUD on Linux' patent infringements...