"The only settlement will be the ability to market a generic, sub-par product"
I am not as angry with DECN but I would disagree. I have reviewed J&J's litigations involving its Lifescan division over patent infringements and/or the Lanham Act allegations that date back to 1995. There are 11 litigations. Three of the 11 litigations involve generic test strips (all generic test strip cases date to the 1990s). Only 1 of the 11 litigations went to judge or jury verdict (the Abbott case) where Abbott won the case against J&J, but the verdict was overturned on appeal and the award went to J&J because of lawyer misconduct. This was a recent case (2009-2013) and is still under appeal, probably because of the money involved -- a $400 million award.
All of the 3 generic cases were settled by J&J. One of the generic strip cases, the First Choice case from 1995-1996, ended in a win for J&J, but they still acquired the First Choice strip in a settlement and paid almost $200 million, and hired the loser management to run a J&J U.S. subsidiary. $200 million was a hefty sum in 1996 when J&J's worldwide market was less than $600 million annually.
I have interviewed two of the generic strip fellows that ran afoul of J&J. The fellow that lost but then won, and the second who is now an industry legend and who now runs a large NYSE traded company that he later founded. The second fellow used his J&J cache to found his then new NYSE company.
Therefore I would say that if you have the resources to survive a litigation with J&J and are not permanently enjoined along the way, that two things happen:
1. you can cash out for a large sum if J&J fears your post litigation activities, even in J&J victory, and
2. J&J appears to always move to remove the "offending" product from the market
But because it is litigation you never know, but it is a very good sign. The moral of this story is that anger tends to consume people and does not allow for clear thinking. At this point it appears that the worst DECN will escape with is the ability to continue to sell Genstrip, but if that happened it would mean that J&J has broken with with their end-game practice. And, I do not think, after 3 years of litigation and the expenditure of an estimated $30 million in legal fees, that J&J believes that Genstrip is inferior.
And one last thing. The management of DECN owes individual shareholders no presents for Christmas except for their continued hard work. Shareholders put up their money by buying their shares from selling shareholders. And settlements are never late, they IMO are ALWAYS in perfect time.
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