Often the margin of difference is so thin that, outside a courtroom, no one can say for sure which team produced the invention first. Alexander Graham Bell's competitor, Elisha Gray, got to the patent office on the same day as Bell, forcing Bell to prove that he invented the telephone first. And, like Bell, whoever reaches the finish line first not only gets the prize they were all competing for-a patent-but, with that patent, the power to stop anyone else, including the runner-up, from producing or selling the invention.

For St. Gall to concede priority was no less than for a country to cede half its territory to a despised foe, and without a shot being fired. There were still important issues to be litigated at trial, among them, whether the discovery of AV/AS was sufficiently novel to deserve a patent. But for St. Gall to stipulate that Vaxtek won the race even before the trial began was startling. It also bothered Seeley that, if he hadn't asked about Warren, Barnum might never have told him about the stipulation.

“Why did they concede priority?”

“Probably,” Barnum said, “because we were first.”

“If you were first, why are they already in the market, and you're just starting phase-three trials?”

“Resources,” Leonard said. “They got a late start, but their money and connections got them through the FDA in half the time we could.”

That still didn't explain St. Gall's stipulation of priority-particularly if they thought one of their employees made the discovery first. “What about Warren?”

“I told you,” Barnum said, “she's a crackpot.”

St. Gall's concession that Steinhardt invented AV/AS first would explain why only two lawyers, Thorpe for St. Gall and Pearsall for Vaxtek, were present when Thorpe deposed Steinhardt. For a witness this important, the deposition room would usually be crowded with lawyers and experts from both sides to advise the two principal lawyers as Thorpe pressed the scientist to pin down the exact moment that he completed the invention.