According to a filing with the Northern District of California Court in San Jose, Yahoo and Xfire have settled a patent infringement suit that was brought by Yahoo against Xfire in February of this year.

The patent in question was issued to Yahoo in March of 2004 and covered the use of buddy lists and instant messaging within a games server browser. Yahoo has been using this feature through its "GameProwler" in more recent versions of the Yahoo Messenger. The patent was submitted and granted to then Yahoo employees Brian Gottlieb and Chris Kirmse - Kirmse today is Xfire’s vice president of engineering.

Yesterday’s court filing says that Yahoo and Xfire have reached an agreement on "key terms for settlement" and "wish to work to reach a final settlement without consuming either their or the Court’s resources for further litigation." Financial terms of the agreement have not been not disclosed.