Adam Carolla has come out victorious against Personal Audio, a company that has been trying to use a patent to claim royalties on his popular podcast.

But by settling, Personal Audio — widely regarded as an egregious "patent troll" — will still retain the ability to go after other podcasts.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that had teamed up with Carolla, announced news of the settlement in a blog post on Monday. The EFF's own attempts to invalidate the patent will continue, but it was disappointed that Carolla — who had succeeded in mounting a strong defense backed by fellow podcasters — decided to agree to terms with Personal Audio, which brought the lawsuit against the comedian's Ace Broadcasting.

"By settling now, Carolla gives up the chance to make Personal Audio pay his fees. If a defendant wins on the merits, it can get fees in extraordinary cases," the EFF wrote. "Winning fees would be a huge deterrent to future litigation from Personal Audio."

Both parties are agreeing to a "quiet period," so the exact details have not been divulged even in the court filing, which can be seen, here.

In June, Personal Audio issued a press release saying that it had offered to drop the patent case if certain terms were met. However, the EFF said that if Carolla agreed to those terms, he wouldn't be able to invalidate the patent.

"Even more important, Carolla also loses the opportunity to invalidate the patent," the EFF wrote. "A troll can’t sue with patent claims that have been invalidated by a court."

Patent trolls are companies that hold patents, and use them to file lawsuits against other companies. As patent cases tend to be expensive and time consuming, many companies agree to settle. Personal Audio had become particularly hated for demanding royalties from other companies.

Founded in 1996, the company calls itself "the pioneers in personalized media solutions," and claims to have developed "playlist technologies ... commonly used today in smartphones, tablets and other devices;" however, it is unclear if Personal Audio currently produces any form of media. The company said it developed a media player that could "download, store and manipulate files," which was described in patent applications filed in Oct. 1996.

Carolla had been lauded as a strong voice that finally took a stand against a patent troll. By bringing widespread attention to the issue, he raised a considerable amount of money to fight Personal Audio.

Carolla told Mashable in early August that he still planned to pursue his case against the company, but admitted that the entire endeavor had left him exhausted and frustrated.

A representative for Carolla declined to comment.