Coach:
This post of yours is an important post on Ryan (president) and his expertise in IP protection. We can be certain that Ryan has been scouring NTRP's patents and advising the company on how best to protect our IP.
I'm confident he had a big hand in the patent/technology transfer of those patents last fall. Possession is 9/10's of the law!
Further, most executives would quietly resign from a company if they thought the company has no claim to their IP. If Ryan had any doubts on NTRP's patent protection for Bryostatin and all of the Bryologs, my belief is that he would have long ago resigned, with a vanilla statement about seeking other opportunities.
Conclusion? Our IP is solid and well-protected for many years, and the company is very active in extending our patents as far out as possible.
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On another note, relevant to the discussion of making slight modifications to bryologs synthesis in order to get around patents:
My daughter is working in a lab doing basic research for potential use in CNS diseases.
She said that just making a very minor change to the amino acid chain caused a benign molecule to become toxic in animal tests.
Anyone making claims that "minor changes to bryostatin or bryologs will get around patent protection" doesn't have a clue what they are talking about.
Conclusion? Minor changes to a molecule, whether they are simple molecules or complex, lead to unanticipated toxicities and a useless drug in humans!