Brown

Background Defendant Leckrone, an attorney, founded TPL and was its chairman. Chester A. Brown, Jr. (Brown) was at various times a consultant to and an employee of TPL, as well as an investor of patent portfolios of which TPL had the right to commercialize. In 1999 Leckrone was seeking funding for the commercialization of a portfolio of "Hearing Health Care" (HHC) patents. Brown and his wife, Marcie Brown, invested $50,000 in the HHC portfolio, in exchange for one percent of the gross proceeds of any licensing of the portfolio. Plaintiffs invested another $50,000 in 2000 and again in 2001. In May 2003 Brown became a consultant to TPL under a Consulting Agreement, under which he served as Chief Operating Officer of Leckrone's newly formed entity, AsyncArray Devices (AAD), in order to develop and commercialize a new microprocessor device, which later became known as the SEAforth microprocessor. Eventually the name of AAD was changed to IntellaSys Corporation. In 2006 Brown became an IntellaSys employee, serving as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In September of 2006 IntellaSys was merged into TPL, but Brown continued to serve as CEO of the IntellaSys division. In August 2003…