I'm not a lawyer.  Nor do I play a lawyer on TV.  But I am known on occasion
to play poker every now and then.  And as a Texas holdem player, I found the
recent developments in the Synopsys vs. Magma patent lawsuit last week to be
very interesting.

First off, let me say that as long as I've been in chip design, I've noticed
that the more threatening an EDA lawsuit was, the more vocal both sides tend
to be.  The idea is to get the customer and investor opinion on your side.

So, in classic Texas holdem style:

   - Before "the flop", both Synopsys and Magma came out shouting
     from the rooftops about how right their side was.  Nobody knew
     who was right and who was wrong.  Some stories appeared in EE Times.

   - After "the flop" (where the first 3 common cards are shown), both
     Synopsys and Magma stepped up the volume in the shouting match.  You
     could see this on last year's DVcon Bigwigs panel.  On top of the
     initial lawsuit, both sides escalated the mudslinging by filing all
     sorts of additional related lawsuits.  Now, lots of complicated legal
     stories show up in EE Times and a few even in EDN.  The FUD that
     Magma customers could get sued by Synopsys if Magma loses even floats
     around for a while.

   - Now on "the turn", the courts start making decisions and it looks
     like what's really going to happen is begining to take shape...

In the courts last week, both Synopsys and Magma decided to back off on the
spurious side cases and just focus on the main lawsuits involving only the
4 patents.  This wasn't a judge telling them to do this; they both agreed
to it on their own!

Also last week on the DVcon Troublemakers Panel when I asked about the
battle, John Chilton of Synopsys gave a tepid "it is in the hands of the
capable courts and we'll see how it ends up" while Rajeev Madhavan of Magma
added an equally flat "we've been really happy with the progress in the
courts and we look forward to finishing this pretty soon".  Whoa!

So, on the outside looking in and as an experienced Texas holdem player, my
instincts tell me that both sides think this case is going to end in some
sort of stalemate they'll both like and dislike.  My gut says that for the
4 patents in dispute, it is probably going to break down to Synopsys will
win some and Magma will win some -- and the judge will make them cross
license them to each other.  Or that Magma might lose but only be forced to
pay some manageable penalty; say around $20 million more or less.

And because Rajeev isn't screaming up a storm now, it appears that deep in
his heart he now knows this isn't going to be the case that killed Magma.
(Rajeev is NOT the go-quietly-into-the-night type; if impending doom is
impending, he's a rage-rage-against-the-dying-of-the-light kind of guy.)

So from the outside looking in, after all this Sturm und Drang, it appears
to me that the Synopsys vs. Magma lawsuit is going to technically be a draw
or a push; nobody wins and nobody loses.  And if that's the case, my kudos
go to Rajeev.  Because as long as Magma is still in business, Rajeev wins.

Again, as I said earlier, I'm not a lawyer.  I could be extraordinarily uber
mondo macho wrong here.  This is just my poker instincts talking.