The deal echoes settlements last year involving lawsuits between the major record labels and Sirius Satellite Radio.
It is a tangled tale, involving lawsuits by Russian oligarchs, high and low politics and, only a few days ago, raids by tax authorities.
The cases that the court has just agreed to hear, which involve lawsuits in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, will be argued in April, and a decision is expected by late June.
In his report, Judge Hellerstein summarized the litigation, involving lawsuits filed on behalf of 96 victims — 85 for wrongful deaths and 11 for injuries.
Throughout the decade, the two companies engaged in a very public and very bitter feud involving lawsuits, model defections — among them was Brinkley, who quickly went back to Ford — and plenty of open hostility.
It escalated with a torrent of questions about Mr. Casey's business dealings, involving lawsuits filed by disgruntled investors and accusations that he had been less than forthcoming about his finances during his confirmation hearings.
There is much phoning around among the moguls and with Mr. Schmidt to hash out whether the next moves involve lawsuits, licensing deals or pulling content out of the leading showcase for Web video altogether.
It's basically he said, she said, only involving lawsuits, hired goons, and Activision, the least popular video game publisher according to a recent GameFaqs poll.
The issue was contentious for some time, involving lawsuits and various efforts to modify the law.
