Gateway has agreed to pay Hewlett-Packard $47 million to <A HREF="http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6044816.html?tag=zdnn.alert">settle a long-standing patent dispute</A> between the parties, Gateway announced Wednesday. As part of the settlement, the computer makers also made a seven-year cross-licensing agreement and dropped all legal claims against each other. The legal wrangling between the companies began in March 2004, when Hewlett-Packard filed a lawsuit against Gateway, alleging six patent infringements relating to its PCs. The legal battle quickly escalated. Gateway filed a counter lawsuit claiming HP violated five of its patents. Then the parties took their legal battle on a global scale, asking the U.S. International Trade Commission to ban each other from importing computers and components that would violate their respective patents.