Amazon.com is coughing up $40m to settle a patent infringement case with Soverain Software covering ecommerce patents.

Chicago-based Soverain filed the infringement claim in January, 2004, and at the time ecommerce mammoth Amazon insisted it would defend the suit vigorously.

Yesterday, Amazon announced in an SEC filing that it had reached a settlement with Soverain, which included a $40m one-time payment, the dismissal of all claims and counterclaims, mutual releases and a non-exclusive license to Soverain’s patent portfolio.

On its website, Soverain describes itself as a pioneer in e-commerce technology, and, on its page history refers to its “acquisition of Open Market's Transact software product and related intellectual property from divine in 2003.”

According to previous Amazon filings, Soverain's original claims involved patents covering “Internet Server Access Control and Monitoring Systems” and “Network Sales Systems”. The suit was later extended to cover patents for “Digital Active Advertising” and “Open Network Payment System for Providing Real-Time Authorization of Payment and Purchase Transactions”.®