Ann: Trading Halt, page-56

If George genuinely had a legitimate claim that the patent is not valid due to "prior art" then he should have challenged it with the patents office before the patent was granted.

Then again, perhaps he thought he had a valid argument, challenged the patent prior to grant but it was found by the patents office that his claim of "prior art" was not supported or not relevant to the specifics of this patent?

It definitely would have been cheaper and quicker to have challenged it prior to grant.

Unless someone with more time than me beats me to it I might have a bit of a look at the patent application this weekend and see if I can find any citations that might indicate such a challenge prior to the grant.