Yes, Niznick paid Nobel millions in the early 1990's after Nobel sued him and others on a fraudulent patent. He got a license that allowed him to say he was licensed by the same Branemark surface patent that Nobel was claiming to be the secret to osseointegration, and used it effectively in his marketing. Nobel and Branemark were found liable for patent fraud over this same patent by a US Federal Court of appeals when they sued 3i. Just shows how dishonest Nobel really is.
Niznick does not need more than 1% of the market to make a lot of money and to drive Nobel's prices down. No one but Mosher knows why he left but it seems more than coincidence that his departure immediately followed his efforts to start a war with Niznick, which ultimately resulted in an FDA investigation over Nobel's packaging and a hugh drop in Nobel Stock values. As for Implant Direct's recall in Canada that resulted in the exchange of only 7 implants sold in 2007, Nobel's involvement in initiating/creating that incident is not how you would expect a market leader to act. Implant Direct has again turned the tables on Nobel's efforts to exploit this incident by slamming them bigtime in an email blast that was just sent out to all Canadian Dentists revealing the whole story behind how Nobel created this issue.
http://www.implantdirect.com/newsletter_0/newsletter_18/canada.htm