You my be right, gamesc. That was exactly 4 years ago. And Apple paid for all perpetual use of the processing and forming equipment, not just material formulas and processes, existing and pending, and developed ever since. Crucible was formed for Apple's convenience. Apple does not pay for extensions of the agreement.
LQMT needs to license Crucible's IP, for non-CE. There is no evidence, in fact the contrary, that either Engle or Materion need to pay LQMT for sales they may make of LQMT related products. As Top Steipp has repeated again and again and emphasized, LQMT revenues will come from licensing the IP. Maybe the broken chain with Visser will allow some of that to happen by LQMT customers choosing to self-mfr items made of LiquidMetal. So buy Materion. Apple is merely a flag that the LQMT blog network waves.