"Are you suggesting that Brown understood if TPL wasn't the exclusive licensing agent, that they'd get nothing? Since the contract specifically addressed TPL as the exclusive licensing agent, there had to be some planning in the event tpl wasn't the agent."

No, I'm not suggesting that. What I was saying there, was that in the context of the timing of the deal between Brown and TPL, PTSC was NOT in the picture, so the perspective I assume Brown had was that TPL would always be the ONLY licensing agent for MMP licenses.

"Second, Brown wasn't party to the CommAg. Therefore the responsibility solely falls on TPL to disclose. You think TPL would have told Brown of the CommAg ahead of time and risked Brown throwing a wrench in the negotiations w/ PTSC? Highly doubtful giving how sneaky Lecky is."

Well, we seem to have completely different understandings here. Based on what I read in the testimony of Felcyn and others, Chet Brown WAS part of the meetings that occurred in the runup to the formation of the merger, and thus knowledgeable of it. As I thought I made clear in my posts, that's the paradigm through which I see this. IMO, since he was part of at least some of those meetings, he should have made sure that his interests remained unclouded by informing PTSC. Put it this way, just imagine if PTSC was a sophisticated cut-throat shark of a company. How would he know what PTSC might do post merger to steal away the MMP or in some way make Brown's interests invalid? Leckrone has touted the MMP to be worth $1B. 3.5% of $1B is $35M. Don't you think the stakes were high enough for Brown to be vigilant in protecting his interests if he knows there's a new party in town claiming rights to those same dollars?

"Plus, even if Brown was aware of the initial tpl/ptsc merger discussion, it sounds like Lecky was quite good at getting people to trust him without sharing details. i think it's totally off basis to fault Brown in any manner."

I don't disagree with the first part of that, but that alleged nature of Lecky wasn't unknown back in 2005. Also, Neilson, who was involved back then was party with TPL in trying to get PTSC's share of the MMP for pennies on the dollar as well. What I read and hear of Brown doesn't strike me as a dummy or unsophisticated business guy. I think he knew full well with whom he was swimming, and went with the flow (that's my read). I don't roundly condemn him, as IMO, all of this would be a moot point had Leckrone simply paid him the 3.5% of TPL's proceeds from the deals back when the deals were occurring as he had agreed rather than trying to stiff him, or leverage the deal into another deal, always keeping the dollars in his own pocket and letting someone else battle to get what was due them.

According to the filings, TPL paid Brown around $1.7M. While some of that was from the Intel deal, I don't know how that broke down with the other deals involved. I've looked in the testimony to see if I could find it, but if for example, some of that came from the HP deal, and it showed Brown accepted 3.5% of the GROSS amount that TPL got, (excluding the portion that PTSC collected), then it would confirm the true understanding/expectation that Brown had as to whether it was 3.5% of MMP gross Gross, or 3.5% of TPL Gross.

Ultimately, I don't fault Brown all that much other than to say that based on what I've read, he KNEW that the merger was happening and may have been even more involved, and IMO, since his 3.5% of Gross clearly MIGHT be something PTSC could be affected by and would certainly want to know about, he should have, just to protect his own interests, informed PTSC of his interest in the MMP gross proceeds.

If I could categorically know that PTSC's pocket was clear of any claims to this or any future court award to Brown, in light of what I've learned of Leckrone, and especially in taking into consideration Chet Brown's medical issues, I'd be pulling for him to get even more as a punishment to Leckrone. But I don't think PTSC shareholders should be exposed to having to help with the award, so I'll take a more protectionist approach, something I wish Brown had done 8 years ago.