Microsoft settles U.S. patent litigation with Bernhard Frohwitter’s ParTec over supercomputer technology ahead of Texas trial

Context:

• Bernhard Frohwitter, the former patent litigator and founder of licensing firm IPCom, is the CEO of ParTec, a German supercomputer firm, and owns BF exaQC AG, ParTec’s patent licensing agent. Two years ago, ParTec and BF ExaQC AG sued Microsoft over three patents in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (June 10, 2024 ip fray article).
• ParTec and BF ExaQC AG’s lead counsel is Susman Godfrey’s Justin Nelson, previously famous for a $787M settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems and now even more so for the $1.5B+ settlement (the largest U.S. copyright recovery so far) of a book authors’ class action with AI provider Anthropic (October 28, 2025 ip fray interview). In the Anthropic case, the fairness hearing in the Northern District of California will take place in two days (May 14, 2026), and an exceptionally high claims rate of more than 91% bodes well for final approval.

What’s new: In filing originally made on Friday (May 8, 2026) and corrected on Monday (May 11, 2026), the parties asked Judge Robert W. Schroeder, III of the United States District for the Eastern District of Texas to stay all deadlines in their case as they have reached a confidential settlement.

Direct impact:

• The terms are confidential, but given what was at stake and considering that ParTec would have gone into the trial with a reasonably high likelihood of success (considering claim construction and other pretrial developments and decisions, such as the denial of Microsoft’s motion to postpone the trial: January 13, 2026 ip fray article), this must be a very significant win for Mr. Frohwitter and ParTec.
• Should any minor disagreements arise, the parties would put them before the district judge, but that appears unlikely. The key terms have been resolved.

Wider ramifications:

• This settlement with one of the world’s most valuable companies, a leading AI provider, and the number two cloud hyperscaler in the world strengthens ParTec vis-à-vis other parties to whom it seeks to license its patents.
• At this stage, there are no signs of a settlement between ParTec and chipmaker NVIDIA at the Unified Patent Court (UPC) (October 28, 2024 ip fray article). Microsoft is one of NVIDIA’s largest customers.
• Assuming that the fairness hearing mentioned further above results in final approval, Mr. Nelson will have made history by settling AI-related IP disputes with two of the largest players (Anthropic is now looking to raise its next round of funding at a trillion-dollar valuation) within about six months of each other (or, if the Anthropic case is considered settled only upon final approval, within just a week of each other).