 Gray's lawyer William D. Baldwin had been told that Bell's application had been notarized on January 20, 1876.Baldwin advised Gray and Gray's sponsor Samuel S. White to abandon the caveat and not to file a patent application for the telephone.Whether Bell's application was filed before or after Gray's caveat no longer mattered, because Gray abandoned his caveat and did not contest Bell's priority, which resulted in Bell being granted for the telephone on March 7, 1876.