Alternative Energy Corporation vs Rothman Part 2

In 2004-October, Alternative Energy Corporation claimed (among other things) that the technology they acquired from Russell Rothman "did not work". AEC originally acquired a 40 year license to the Rothman technology in 2003-July. In 2003-September, they purchased an interest in the to be filed patent stating

"The unanimous decision to buy out the technology was based on a number of re-affirming test results which were recently conducted - in particular, the successful joint fuel cell test. These technology-validating trials confirmed in our minds that we needed more 'skin' in the game, as it represented an enormous business opportunity for our company and its shareholders," said Froats.

That's difficult to reconcile.

Once the company realized that the Rothman technology wasn't working, they had an obligation to tell shareholders. The first oblique disclosure of a problem was the annual report for 2004. So they must have discovered that the Rothman technology "did not work" rather recently, perhaps after the 2004-Q3 report. Yet it seems impossible that it would have taken AEC from 2003-July when they first licensed the technology till mid 2004 to determine that.

There is an apparent anachronism in Alternative Energy Corporation's continuing claim that Maxxam Analytics tested their process on October 7, 2003. That was only weeks after they purchased the Rothman technology, and more than a year before the company announced any problems with it, so, presumably, that's what they were testing. But AEC isn't using that anymore, since it "did not work". So it makes no sense for AEC to claim now that Maxxam has tested their technology.