$49.5 million agreement includes license of Tulip's motherboard design to Dell Dutch PC maker Tulip Computers International has settled a three-year-old patent dispute with Dell Computer.Under terms of the settlement, Tulip will receive $49.5 million, with less than $10 million coming directly from Dell, the Amersfoort, Netherlands, computer company said in statement last week. In turn, Dell can claim that it has not infringed on a patent for circuit-board technology registered by Tulip in the U.S.Moreover, the agreement includes a nonexclusive license of Tulip’s motherboard design to Dell, according to the statement. The settlement appears to be a drop in the bucket of what Tulip had initially hoped to win in royalties and damages.Tulip filed suit against Dell in November 2000 in the U.S. District court for the District of Delaware, accusing Dell of copying a patented motherboard design and using it in some of its Optiplex desktop PCs. At the time, the Dutch company said the infringement covered about $17 billion of the Round Rock, Texas, company’s sales over the three-year period, adding that license fees for the type of patent in question generally amount to between 1 percent and 5 percent of the revenue they generate. Representatives for Tulip and Dell could not be immediately reached for comment Monday. Technology Industry