Consider what Geoff has been through. We don't know the details that surround this company when it was created and private. The seed money came from a few but Geoff's contribution was of course his share of the patent ownership. It was the new board Mark and Peter who for the first time ever provided options to the lab and Geoff played catch up with options but before that it was a sad situation in my opinion. So when this company went public there was 35 million shares. Today there is of course a lot more. Geoff's share which is the foundation of this company is now just over 1 million common shares out of 176 million currently outstanding. He has 3 million options thanks to Mark and Peter. But the last crew all lined their pockets while Geoff's ownership shrank more and more. Not only that but none of that money was making its way into the semiconductor technology..
It’s all history and Geoff today has 3 million plus options so he is going to be well rewarded but not anywhere to degree he should be.
On the subject of patent ownership which was asked a few days ago and by PM to me this morning I should probably share the following response I gave unless anyone else is interested.
This is one of the first questions that we asked several years ago when we started looking at the patents in detail. POET owns all of Taylor's patents and that information was provided by way of news release at the time. Oogee could probably recall the trail better than myself. The names on the patents when they were filed contain the names of the original assignee.
In Feb 2014 the royalty with UCONN was adjusted as per the following (I have looked at the SEC filing in detail on the agreements both with UCONN and with BAE) NR:
The company also wishes to announce that it has entered into a term sheet with the University of Connecticut to restructure its licence agreement of April 8, 2003. The parties confirmed that the licences granted pursuant to the licence agreement are in full force and are irrevocable.
While the maintenance fee provisions of the licence agreement remain unchained, the parties agreed to restructure the payment provisions by reducing the royalty payment to 3 per cent of amounts received from unaffiliated third parties in respect of the exploitation of the intellectual property defined in the licence agreement.
In consideration for the favourable restructuring of the royalty terms, the company will provide the university two million common shares, subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange; trading of these shares is restricted until May 31, 2016. The restructuring is subject to the final execution of the formal amendment to the licence agreement.
Mr. Copetti stated: "I am extremely pleased with the University of Connecticut's vote of confidence in Poet, exhibited by their taking an equity stake in the company as an alternative to a higher potential royalty revenue stream. At the same time, their decision will greatly enhance the company's ability to monetize the Poet technology and create shareholder value."
