The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting article about a toy inventor that recently lost a lawsuit with Marvel. Back in 1990 Stephen Kimble patented his idea for a toy that was activated via a trigger attached to a valve in the palm of a glove. He pitched the toy idea to Marvel but they passed. According to court documents Marvel went ahead and produced a similar toy. Kimble sued for copyright infringement and was awarded 3.5 percent of all sales of Spider-Man’s web shooter toys.
That agreement went along for years until the toys were produced by Hasbro. A recent judgement cut the patent owner out of future earnings on his patent toy. In the 20 years the toys been produced Kimble has made more than 20 million dollars.
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This is why the guy should have pitched his idea to Hasbro instead of Marvel at the time. When it comes to original ideas, never pitched them to Marvel. Give them the recycled stuff. 🙂
Well yes he has clearly earned a fair bit of money, it seems harsh to cut him out now.
But…it’s HIS patent.
Well, I was like “pay the man,” but then I saw how much he’s already been paid.