When (as I merely suspect) TPL put its BAFO on the table, negotiations were over. It would have been "take it leave it". And this is my strong suspicion because I believe that if there were an opportunity, PTSC would have pushed for more. Very similar to where it appears we are at today, but in the opposite direction. It appears that today it is PTSC who is steadfast, and TPL that wishes to try and negotiate a better deal. Perhaps what you're missing that that nobody HAS TO negotiate.

You insist that they could have negotiated more. I suspect it was as above. So the answer is NO, they couldn't. It was agree, or back to court for potentially years on end. Again, TPL could afford to wait us out. PTSC did not necessarily have that luxury, and also had 16,000 shareholders to worry about (again, with very high expectations of near term gains).

TPL's alternative (to a settlement)? Battle it out in court (they had certainly been successful to that time) and perhaps somehow gain more from the endeavor. I suspect that they too saw the weaknesses in the proposition of attempting to further license independently, so that avenue may not have even been considered.

As for your last paragraph, yes, here we are. And Leckrone may be subject to criminal charges. Recall that when I posted those things, I believe that I qualified with "typically", "normally" or "in the real world", or something along those lines. But IMO, in Leckrone we're dealing with a crazy person (I honestly didn't believe that Lecky was so "lost" at that time). So "normal" and "ethical" go out the window. And he may ultimately pay the price as I suggested. And that may be our ultimate hammer.

SGE