In the middle of last year Mr. da Silva split Ibama into two agencies, separating the environmental protection functions from the issuance of such licenses.
While the ruling returns the licenses to NextWave, the company is still trying to emerge from bankruptcy, and industry analysts say the value of such licenses has been falling since the Federal Communications Commission tried to reauction them in early 2001.
And other companies are also starting to demand payment of such licenses.
Nevertheless, the presence of such licenses at a convention hall hasn't mollified musicians, their publishers or managers, even though they receive royalty payments for their music.
Critics of such licensing initiatives argue that it's wrong to let people have a driver's license if they've entered or remained in U.S. while sidestepping the legal immigration process.
What are the terms of such licenses (including exclusivity versus non-exclusivity, royalty rates, fields of use restrictions, etc)., and who are the parties to such agreements?
"Our long and successful track record of licensing more than 50 companies throughout the mobile industry is proof of that commitment, and of our ability to reach mutually agreeable terms for such licenses," Lawrence Shay, President of InterDigital's patent holding subsidiaries said in a statement.
A Kodak spokesman says Kodak and Sony have been negotiating the issues at hand for three years, and in the technology industry lawsuits are often a means of forcing a conclusion to such licensing negotiations.
Imagine such license, deemed "freedom of expression," being claimed for defacing religious figures like Moses, Muhammad or Buddha.
As Paul Waldman points out in the Washington Post, the price of such a license is subjective, determined by the buyer's perception of its value.
