I still think that TPL/Leckrone had to do something to get cash so Leckrone wouldn't lose his house to the judgment from the earlier court case. Those debtor's examinations are less than a month away. Curious though, when a debtor is ordered to a debtor's examination they usually are prevented from selling, diluting or encumbering any assets. That might affect the validity of the PTSC deal. A normal person might be nervous about that but Leckrone is already in hot water and might be desperate. Still, I'm fed up with all of this. I think I'll dump PTSC for a loss and go on to something a little more stable.
The difference is that B&O was basically honest and reputable (if somewhat careless) whereas Leckrone/TPL have been proven in the CA courts to be liars, frauds and cheats. Roger Cook of T&T, TPL's attorney was sanctioned by a Federal Court some time ago for playing games with discovery documents. Given that TPL now has control of the patents and Roger Cook is directly involved I think that Patriot should keep one hand on the wallet and another hand on the family jewels and hire a full time auditor to keep an eye on these characters. In the previous suits against Leckrone it was found that Leckrone ''ignored court orders and court sanctioned documents and communicated to third parties information inconsistent with, and even contrary to, those court orders and documents.'' Now what sort of credibility do you think Leckrone has with any prospective licensee. How will that impact their ability to generate license revenue?
More likely he is looking to finalize the details of the settlement agreement and associated contracts with TPL. There are lots of things to do like assignments, licenses and making sure that PTSC has sufficient contractual leverage to keep TPL honest, or at least catch them if they aren't. Regarding TPL taking PTSC private, I don't see that happening. What they might do is starve PTSC so that it goes under, and then keep PTSC's piece of the pie under some sort of U owe us theory.
OK guys, read this carefully because it it written to disguise what is really happening. Basically Patriot gets 10% of whatever is left after TPL and the new company take out their ''expenses''. These ''expenses'' which will include the attorney's contingency fees, TPL's contingency fees, Moore's contingency fees, the monies paid to operate the new company and TPL's expenses in licensing the patents. It is a sweetheart deal for TPL's owners (the Leckrones) and it leaves PTSC sucking hind tit.
Would you hire some attorney, give him a quarterly payment he doesn't have to account for, pay him a salary, pay him a percentage of revenue, pay him all of his past, present and future expenses, and agree that you only have 30 days to object to billings? I think not.
Again, I say that whoever agreed to this contract on behalf of Patriot needs to have their head examined. This is a prime example of a failure of fiduciary duty and obligation.
An old negitiation trick. Make the language of the agreement look like you're intersted in the long term health and welfare of the company. I seriously doubt that TPL has any interst in exercising those warrants. Let's see if they take the first 1.4 million.
At last check both the younger and elder Leckrones still have their houses in hock in the debtor's court. Makes you wonder what they did with all the money they supposedly received.
This case was basically about who the correct inventor(s) is/are for the '336 patent. If PTSC and TPL really had settled that issue, then there would be no need to reopen the Higgins ruling or the underlying inventor question. Logically I think the appeal must signal a falling out between PTSC and TPL. My bet is that with the ever vigilant JW gone, and when PTSC actually got around to reading the settlement papers, that they realized too late that they weren't getting what Leckrone promised. Caveat emptor.
Why didn't Pohl take care of B&O so we don't have this appeal issue messing up business? What's wrong with that guy, can't he tie up loose ends?
This whole appeal/B&O thing worries me as well. According to my attorney it would not be at all unusual for a contingent fee agreement, such as that with Townsend or B&O, to give the attorney a percentage of any income related to the patent, whether a suit is also involved in regard to that income or not. The theory behind this is that once the patents are litigated and found to be infringed and valid that the other infringers will quickly sign up to a license, thus the money is at least indirectly tied to the attorney's litigation work. If Townsend gets this type of percentage, and if B&O also gets this type of percentage, and TPL gets a percentage, that doesn't leave much for PTSC.
Overall, it won't bother me one way or the other because I took my losses last month when I heard about the deal (and it was a smart move given today's close). I feel sorry for the investors who believe that the departure of JW and the ''settlement'' is a positive event. I have a nagging conscience which won't let me sit idly by while others get sucked in to the corporate speak hype. See for example Larscot's post of 07/06.
I have tracked this company for some time and it is my opinion that the deal with the Leckrones is nothing but trouble and will lead PTSC to the spiral of death. Meanwhile the Leckrones will end up with total and free ownership of the patents - at the expense of the PTSC stockholders. These stockholders need to hold the PTSC board and officers to their fiduciary obligations.
Has anybody heard anything about the remaining 150 getting together with a Joint Defense Agreement to invalidate the patents?
I wouldn't be surprised if Newco doesn't generate enough license revenue in the next two quarters to prevent TPL from draining of PTSC's cash. When the cash is gone, PTSC will be forced to raise more money or default on their obligations to cover Newco expenses. If they default TPL will exercise their security interest and end up owning 100% of the interest in the patent portfolio.
The Fujitsu group may very well have some of that prior art in their hands.
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