Really? I have no metrics to go on other than assets/income. Do you have statistics? If nothing else, the sheer army of lawyers that could be brought to bear by the defendants could effectively paralyze Eolas under paperwork.
Consider: Microsoft has been in business for 3 decades and 2 of them have been spent fighting IP lawyers. They're much more likely to know their way around software/IP law than anyone else. I'm not arguing much against your statement of a legal deluge on behalf of the defendents: I agree with that. However, these guys just won 500 million dollars -- surely Microsoft tried the same tactics that these new defendants are going to employ. I hope they work this time.
That makes sense: the thing that works in their favour though is the sheer number of huge companies who can bring their clout to this. They will collaborate to tie the proceedings up in decades of endless litigation. But more importantly think of the political clout of these companies.
Good point. The government would also tend to be hesitant to let this put pressure on the bank as well because many banks are already in such trouble here in the US.
On the other hand this is far from JP Morgans core business. So perhaps they'll be more likely to throw some money at them to shut them up, and not tie up a bunch of their lawyers in something which they have no real interest in.
JP Morgan probably has more legal counsel than the rest of the defendants, combined.