Maybe Patriot has something after all. Technology Properties Ltd. CEO Daniel E. Leckrone, some of his companies and his son Mac Leckrone recently lost a suit for various wrongdoing in San Jose CA. A judgement included damages and attorney fees of over $1 million as well as injunctive relief was awarded against Leckrone and his companies. Unable or unwilling to pay the judgment, the Court has ordered the Leckrones to appear at a debtors examination. See http://www.sccaseinfo.org/pa5.asp?full_case_number=1-97-CV-764491 (don`t include any spaces or the link fails). That award stems from several suits against the Leckrone defendants, including one alleging fraud, in a situation virtually identical to the dispute with Patriot over the `336 patent. This whole scenario of a Leckrone company crawling out of the woodwork to assert rights in a valuable patent seems to be some sort of business plan. If Patriot can rid itself of this impediment they should do very well with their patents.