I'm willing to bet that IBM has spent less on the lawsuit than a commercial or two during the superbowl.  However, unlike a memorable commercial, this lawsuit has done more to change the attitudes of many in the F/OSS community than anything IBM could have done.

Remember Fear Uncertaintly and Doubt was actually a term coined by Amdahl to describe IBM.  Many in the F/OSS communties remember the IBM of old and before the SCO lawsuit were very cautious about IBM support for Linux.  I don't think that caution has gone away but I do think that many of those same suspicious people have likely contributed on Groklaw, Yahoo, Slashdot or elsewhere to help IBM.

Moreover, I suspect that many in the trenches at companies all around the world have perhaps been influenced in their decisions regarding IBM solutions because of IBM's actions against SCO.

If IBM makes any type of settlement that gives SCO money, then there will be some type of tacit admission of guilt.  Forgetting what that could do to IBM's own marketing if companies think IBM played fast and loose with IP, such an admission will severely undercut a truly amazing amount of goodwill that IBM has built up in the F/OSS community.