Chapter 6: What the Judge Said
Nora laid it out in twelve minutes.
Original contracts.
IP exclusion clauses.
Patent registration records in my name alone.
The timeline of Halcourt's engagement.
The retroactive licensing language.
Priya's testimony about what she had been asked to sign off on and why she had refused.
Halcourt's attorney — his name was Greer — rose when Nora finished.
"Your Honor, the claimant's contracts were executed under a standard Prescott Biomedical employment framework that—"
"Mr.
Greer." Judge Reeves didn't raise her voice.
"The claimant's contracts are in front of me.
The IP exclusion language is explicit.
Are you prepared to argue that explicit contractual language does not mean what it says?"
A pause.
"We believe the surrounding employment context creates an implied—"
"I've read the filing." She set it down.
"I'm not persuaded by implied when explicit is sitting on the same page." She turned to me.
"Dr.
Prescott.
You are the named inventor on eleven of the fourteen patents currently held under Prescott Biomedical's portfolio?"
"Yes, Your Honor."
"And you hold original registration documentation predating your employment with Prescott Biomedical for six of those patents?"
"Yes."
She looked back at Greer.
"Mr.
Greer, your client's filing attempts to claim co-ownership of patents that predate the employment relationship entirely.
Can you explain that to me?"
Greer straightened his jacket.
"Your Honor, the commercial development and refinement of those patents occurred within Prescott facilities and—"
"Refinement is not invention." She closed the folder.
"I'm granting the emergency injunction.
No transfer, licensing, or assignment of the disputed patents may proceed pending full hearing.
I'm scheduling that hearing for three weeks from today." She looked at Greer.
"Your client should come prepared to explain the retroactive licensing agreement in considerably more detail than you've offered this afternoon."
Greer's pen was still in his hand.
He hadn't written anything.
Nora sat back down beside me.
"That's the injunction," she said quietly.
"The Monday filing is blocked."
Outside the courtroom, in the marble hallway, I stopped and stood still for a moment.
Priya came out behind us.
She shook my hand without saying anything.
Then she walked toward the elevator.
Nora watched her go.
"She'll be fine.
She's already had two firms reach out since word got around that she walked out of Halcourt."
"Word got around fast."
"Legal community is small." Nora looked at me.
"How are you?"
"I need to call my D.C.
attorney.
And I need to eat something."
"Both of those are good ideas."
We walked out into the afternoon.
The sky had gone pale and wide, the way it does in October when the light starts pulling back.
My phone showed four missed calls.
Richard.
Ethan.
Diane.
Ethan again.
And one text from a number I didn't have saved.
*This is Chloe.
I'm not calling from my regular phone because I didn't want Ethan to see.
I need to tell you something.
Something I should have told you a long time ago.
Please call me back.*
I read it twice.
Nora was watching me.
"Someone unexpected?" she asked.
"My sister," I said.
Nora was quiet for a moment.
"Are you going to call her?"
I looked at the message again.
*Something I should have told you a long time ago.*
"Not yet," I said.
I put the phone in my pocket and we walked toward the street.
But the message stayed with me all the way back to my hotel.
May you like
Whatever Chloe needed to say, it wasn't going to be small.
And I wasn't sure I was ready to hear it standing on a courthouse sidewalk.
