Sarah placed the original patent file on the conference table, directly beside the acquisition binder Alex had signed the night before.
The sound was small, no louder than a book being closed, but every director in the room reacted as if she had dropped a weapon.
Alex remained standing beside the speakerphone.
His face had gone pale, and the hand holding his chair was trembling.
Intercolix’s general counsel had just announced that the company was withdrawing its five-hundred-million-dollar offer because Corivia no longer possessed the right to use the technology at the center of the acquisition.
Alex looked from Sarah to Marcus.
“This is theater,” he said.
“She cannot revoke a company asset.”
Sarah removed her coat and folded it over the back of an empty chair.
“The patent is not a company asset.”
“We built an entire platform around it.”
“Under license.”
“A permanent license.”
Marcus finally spoke.
“No, Alex.
It is a conditional license.”
The CEO turned toward him so quickly that his chair rolled backward.
“You approved the deal.”
“I approved the deal based on the representation that Brittany’s employment status and the license terms would remain unchanged through closing.”
“She was terminated for cause.”
“That is one of the problems.”
Sarah opened the patent file and removed three documents.
The first was the original patent registration.
The second was the license agreement between me and Corivia.
The third was the notice she had served the previous morning.
On the speakerphone, Intercolix’s counsel asked Marcus to read Clause 14B into the record.
He hesitated only once.
“The licensor may terminate this agreement upon material breach if the licensee falsely represents ownership of the protected invention, challenges the licensor’s title, or removes the licensor from her operational role without cause as defined in Section Nine.”
Alex leaned over the table.
“I had cause.”
Sarah looked at him.
“Then state it.”
“Insubordination.
Obstruction.
Refusal to support the transaction.”
“Those are accusations.
Which defined act in Section Nine did she commit?”
Alex glanced toward Marcus.
Marcus did not help him.
Section Nine listed specific grounds: fraud, theft, intentional disclosure of confidential data, felony conviction, or documented gross misconduct causing measurable harm.
It did not include disagreeing with a CEO, refusing to transfer personal property, or insisting that a buyer be told the truth.
Sarah slid the agreement toward Alex.
“Show us the qualifying cause.”
He did not touch it.
Instead, he pointed at the speakerphone.
“This is a coordinated attempt to extort the company during a sale.”
Intercolix’s counsel answered before Sarah could.
“Mr.
Carrington, our concern is not extortion.
Our concern is that your disclosure schedule identifies Corivia as the owner of all core intellectual property.
The patent registration contradicts that statement.”
Alex’s eyes moved to Marcus again.
“You signed the disclosure schedule,” Marcus said quietly.
“Based on what I was told.”
“By whom?”
The question sat in the room.
No one claimed responsibility.
I was not there yet.
Sarah had advised me to remain at her office while she established the record.
She believed Alex would be more careless without me in the room.
She was right.
He began talking faster.
He said the patent had been developed using company resources.
Sarah reminded him it had been filed eighteen months before Corivia’s incorporation.
He said my continued employment
