Burst.com, the company that has for 2 years alleged that Apple's iTunes Music Store, iTunes software, the iPod devices, and Apple's QuickTime Streaming products infringe various of its U.S. Patents, this week settled with Apple in return for a one-time payment of $10M cash, giving Apple a patent license providing the right to use Burst's intellectual property in its own technology and products, without further consideration.

"Burst plans to continue identifying and evaluating companies who represent licensing opportunities and intends to diligently pursue those likely to yield suitable returns," the company stated, in an announcement.

The announcement continued:

"Burst does not plan to announce specific names of suspected infringing products or companies in advance of negotiating with them or filing litigation to enforce its patent rights. Burst does not plan to publicly release any internal assessments of market segment size or dollar value of those markets, although it believes that they are significant enough to warrant the aggressive pursuit of patent licensing.

Court costs, expenses and attorney's fees in connection with the settlement of the litigation with Apple will reduce proceeds to the Company to approximately $4.6 million. According to the agreement, payment to Burst is to be made promptly after signing of a definitive settlement agreement. Burst's Board of Directors has indicated that it will be considering a cash distribution to Burst's shareholders from the Apple license fee, in an amount to be determined."

The non-exclusive license granted to Apple does not include one issued U.S. patent and 3 pending U.S. patent applications related to new DVR technology. However Burst agreed not to sue Apple for any future infringement of the DVR patent and any patents that might issue from the pending DVR-related applications.