you make a good point. if you are paying $150,000, you should at least talk to a laywer to make sure you are getting the "license" they claim to be offering.
You really have 1 viable option at this point - talk to a very good patent attorney.
Yep, the hope is that our firm does not have to spend lots of time spinning their wheels getting up to speed on this just to give us some basic advice, but I fear they will need that.
If there was a firm specifically geared to dealing with IP patent trolling that would be ideal.
Do a quick search online and you'll see there's a long history around this patent and ongoing litigation with Microsoft, Ebay, Shopzilla, etc. Have it ready for your attorneys and help them get up to speed quickly. Manatt is basically giving people only 2-3 weeks to pay up until they say they'll file the lawsuit, so they're banking on your not having the time to get your stuff together. Like I said, nice people. Welcome to the mafioso world which is patent trolls.