With reference to your example, the Sony deal most certainly gave rise to reasonable suspicion of foul play by TPL, and was immediately recongnized as such even by many laymen shareholders. This was followed by public statements made by TPL as to increasing licensing fees and frequency of deals, which were then not borne out by actual occurrences. Furthermore, additional MMP licensing deals, which we came to find were relatively low in value, continued to be announced in tandem, or very close in time, with TPL's licensing of its own IP. Other such factors could also be mentioned, but there is no need.
As a practicing attorney, which you are not, I can tell you with absolute confidence that more than enough facts existed long before this week from which reasonable allegations could have been used in fashioning a viable petition or complaint against TPL. Whether it would have been advisable to move forward at some earlier time may be debatable and is a different subject, but to say that there was an absence of any facts and/or "evidence", or that reasonable suspicion did not exist, long before August 2010, is simply erroneous.
Best wishes to you and all.