Tolkien Estate vs. New Line Cinemas

So apparently the owners of the JRR Tolkien Estate and Properties including all rights to his published works are suing New Line Cinemas for creative compensation and punitive damages around The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. They claim that they weren't paid a single penny from the profits of any of the films. They are requesting $150 million in compensation and damages as well ass refusing the rights to distribution or production of any further Tolkien creative works, including The Hobbit films which were announced last year.

I am not a huge fan of LotR. I enjoyed the first film but I thought the latter ones starts becoming a little to stale and distorted. I don't think the separate story lines were handled very well and things became a little convoluted. I was however looking forward to The Hobbit primarily because I think the story can be translated to film far better and in the early discussions that have been taking place it seems as though Guillermo del Toro is most likely attached as director. I hope there is a reasonable settlement that they reach so they can avoid keeping a potentially great film, or possibly two films, away from the public. They are trying to protect his works but I don't see how preventing his creation from reaching another another medium and a whole new audience is doing that.