MRK
11-10-2013, 07:06 AM
http://www.ajc.com/news/business/super-soaker-creator-awarded-729m-from-hasbro/nbjmm/#!
The Atlanta-based company behind the Super Soaker water gun and Nerf toy guns has been awarded nearly $73 million in royalties from toymaker Hasbro Inc., according to the law firm King & Spalding.
Johnson Research and Development Co. and founder Lonnie Johnson have been in a royalty dispute with Hasbro since February, when the company filed a claim against the giant toy company. According to King & Spalding, which along with the A. Leigh Baier P.C. law firm represented Johnson, Hasbro underpaid royalties for the Nerf line toys from 2007 to 2012.
“In the arbitration we got everything we asked for,” said Atlanta attorney Leigh Baier. “The arbitrator ruled totally in Lonnie’s favor.” The attorney also said Johnson “is very pleased” with the outcome.
Johnson could not be reached for comment Wednesday, nor could Pawtucket, RI.-based Hasbro.
The arbitration agreement resolves a 2001 inventors dispute in which Hasbro agreed to pay Johnson royalties for products covered by his Nerf line of toys, specifically the N-Strike and Dart Tag brands, King & Spalding attorney Ben Easterlin said.
In a separate breach of contract suit filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta in February, Johnson accuses Hasbro of violating a 1996 agreement to pay him Super Soaker royalties of 2 percent for “three-dimensional products” based on the appearance of the toy and 1 percent for “two-dimensional visual representations.”
The suit says Hasbro sold water guns that were “visually similar and based upon the appearance of Super Soaker water guns that incorporate Johnson’s technology.” Johnson also wanted the court to force Hasbro to open its books to determine sales of Super Soaker products from 2006 to 20012.
Johnson, a nuclear engineer, Tuskegee University Ph.D. and former NASA scientist, founded his company in 1989. It was the same year he first licensed the Super Soaker, which generated more than $200 million in retail sales two years later, the company said. The toy was licensed to Larami Corp., which was later purchased by Hasbro.
Johnson holds more than 80 patents, with more than 20 pending, the company said, which said sales of the Super Soaker have approached nearly $1 billion.
As an Alabama high school senior, Johnson finished building a remote-controlled robot with a reel-to-reel tape player for a brain and jukebox solenoids controlling its pneumatic limbs, according to a 2008 profile in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
After graduating from Tuskegee he joined the Air Force, worked at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory at Sandia, worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab on the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Mars Observer project, among others. He also helped design the Cassini robot probe that flew 740 million miles to Saturn.
He moved to Atlanta in 1990 before his Super Soaker invention made him wealthy. His inventions have included rechargeable battery technology and thermodynamic energy conversion technology.
Wow! Good job Mr. Johnson!
Good, I'm glad to see the man get his just due. I'm also glad to see the greedy bastards who cheated him, pay for it...!
I am happy for them !
Good to see the man finally get what's coming to him. Truly a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
AMEN AMEN AMEN.... happy for Dr. Lonnie Johnson
One of very few Black Inventors who did not ave their inventions stolen.
He invented a toy that everyone loves... Its universal..no matter what race, creed, or color.
Everyone likes a good water gun fight!
They wanted to bilk him out of his 2% and 1% royalties? Talk about greed... [This user has a Gadsden Flag as an Avatar]
I wonder how much of that judgment the lawyers will get.
I don't blame anyone making money, But if he is smart, he will get OUT of Alanta
Thanks to Mr. Johnson for the many hours and years of summer fun brought to my kids and their friends. Shame on Hasbro, did they really think they would get away with what they did forever? Hasbro needs to get new people to examine their products and those submitted by outside vendors for patent violations. They have obviously had bad advice in the past, both legal and technical. This was not some guy off the street they went against in court. Keep up the good work Mr. Johnson.
He should have gotten more.
Finally.
Many inventors get ripped off and never see any money.
gorgeous humanity!
Johnson is truly an amazing inventor. Glad to see him prevail on this.
Some people misinterpret this as the only win Johnson's ever had and that's not true at all. He's been extremely successful, and received a lot of industry accolades along the way -not to mention some nice sales stats. This battle with Hasbro was really only a small skirmish and the win only gives him what he should have gotten anyway. Hasbro picked a fight with the wrong person.
Not to diminish Johnson at all, but he didn't need this win to be considered great. He already was.
Glad to hear Hasbro paying up to Mr. Johnson. He deserves it.
He has been a great supporter and sponsor to my son's First Robotics team, by supplying space and $ for them to build a competitive First Robotics Competition Robot. He is a community hero in all he does to support Atlanta area robotics for all our students.
Success is color blind. The man is a brilliant inventor who understood the market he was aiming for and succeeded. He provided a generation (and probably the next) with fun-filled memories.
Good for him!!
As for those commenting about his race, who cares?? Racism folks comes from petty minds, and it can come from those on the left and the right.
To me Lonnie Johnson should be an inspiration for everyone who aspires to invent and see their products come to market with success!!
Congratulations Lonnie Johnson!!
Graviton Motors.com would love to Congratulate you Lonnie on your well over due win! We see that you are also interested in Green technology and so are we. We are in the business of creating new electric air motors that can achieve driving from state to state. We would like to discuss a partnership if you care to have a sit down to see the new technology that Graviton Motors is trying to get developed. We are trying to get more votes to get a grant from Chase goto: https://www.missionmainstreetgrants.com/business/detail/138274
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Each paragraph is 1 comment out of only 48 comments.
I think the public has a long way to go before it will abandon the 'Get rich quick' financial savior dream that people have of making an invention and striking it automatically rich. They immediately assume one man's months or years of effort trumps the effort of thousands of employees over the course of 20 years. I wonder how many jobs this is going to cost for Hasbro in the coming months.
Stay classy, America.
The Atlanta-based company behind the Super Soaker water gun and Nerf toy guns has been awarded nearly $73 million in royalties from toymaker Hasbro Inc., according to the law firm King & Spalding.
Johnson Research and Development Co. and founder Lonnie Johnson have been in a royalty dispute with Hasbro since February, when the company filed a claim against the giant toy company. According to King & Spalding, which along with the A. Leigh Baier P.C. law firm represented Johnson, Hasbro underpaid royalties for the Nerf line toys from 2007 to 2012.
“In the arbitration we got everything we asked for,” said Atlanta attorney Leigh Baier. “The arbitrator ruled totally in Lonnie’s favor.” The attorney also said Johnson “is very pleased” with the outcome.
Johnson could not be reached for comment Wednesday, nor could Pawtucket, RI.-based Hasbro.
The arbitration agreement resolves a 2001 inventors dispute in which Hasbro agreed to pay Johnson royalties for products covered by his Nerf line of toys, specifically the N-Strike and Dart Tag brands, King & Spalding attorney Ben Easterlin said.
In a separate breach of contract suit filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta in February, Johnson accuses Hasbro of violating a 1996 agreement to pay him Super Soaker royalties of 2 percent for “three-dimensional products” based on the appearance of the toy and 1 percent for “two-dimensional visual representations.”
The suit says Hasbro sold water guns that were “visually similar and based upon the appearance of Super Soaker water guns that incorporate Johnson’s technology.” Johnson also wanted the court to force Hasbro to open its books to determine sales of Super Soaker products from 2006 to 20012.
Johnson, a nuclear engineer, Tuskegee University Ph.D. and former NASA scientist, founded his company in 1989. It was the same year he first licensed the Super Soaker, which generated more than $200 million in retail sales two years later, the company said. The toy was licensed to Larami Corp., which was later purchased by Hasbro.
Johnson holds more than 80 patents, with more than 20 pending, the company said, which said sales of the Super Soaker have approached nearly $1 billion.
As an Alabama high school senior, Johnson finished building a remote-controlled robot with a reel-to-reel tape player for a brain and jukebox solenoids controlling its pneumatic limbs, according to a 2008 profile in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
After graduating from Tuskegee he joined the Air Force, worked at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory at Sandia, worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab on the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Mars Observer project, among others. He also helped design the Cassini robot probe that flew 740 million miles to Saturn.
He moved to Atlanta in 1990 before his Super Soaker invention made him wealthy. His inventions have included rechargeable battery technology and thermodynamic energy conversion technology.
Wow! Good job Mr. Johnson!
Good, I'm glad to see the man get his just due. I'm also glad to see the greedy bastards who cheated him, pay for it...!
I am happy for them !
Good to see the man finally get what's coming to him. Truly a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
AMEN AMEN AMEN.... happy for Dr. Lonnie Johnson
One of very few Black Inventors who did not ave their inventions stolen.
He invented a toy that everyone loves... Its universal..no matter what race, creed, or color.
Everyone likes a good water gun fight!
They wanted to bilk him out of his 2% and 1% royalties? Talk about greed... [This user has a Gadsden Flag as an Avatar]
I wonder how much of that judgment the lawyers will get.
I don't blame anyone making money, But if he is smart, he will get OUT of Alanta
Thanks to Mr. Johnson for the many hours and years of summer fun brought to my kids and their friends. Shame on Hasbro, did they really think they would get away with what they did forever? Hasbro needs to get new people to examine their products and those submitted by outside vendors for patent violations. They have obviously had bad advice in the past, both legal and technical. This was not some guy off the street they went against in court. Keep up the good work Mr. Johnson.
He should have gotten more.
Finally.
Many inventors get ripped off and never see any money.
gorgeous humanity!
Johnson is truly an amazing inventor. Glad to see him prevail on this.
Some people misinterpret this as the only win Johnson's ever had and that's not true at all. He's been extremely successful, and received a lot of industry accolades along the way -not to mention some nice sales stats. This battle with Hasbro was really only a small skirmish and the win only gives him what he should have gotten anyway. Hasbro picked a fight with the wrong person.
Not to diminish Johnson at all, but he didn't need this win to be considered great. He already was.
Glad to hear Hasbro paying up to Mr. Johnson. He deserves it.
He has been a great supporter and sponsor to my son's First Robotics team, by supplying space and $ for them to build a competitive First Robotics Competition Robot. He is a community hero in all he does to support Atlanta area robotics for all our students.
Success is color blind. The man is a brilliant inventor who understood the market he was aiming for and succeeded. He provided a generation (and probably the next) with fun-filled memories.
Good for him!!
As for those commenting about his race, who cares?? Racism folks comes from petty minds, and it can come from those on the left and the right.
To me Lonnie Johnson should be an inspiration for everyone who aspires to invent and see their products come to market with success!!
Congratulations Lonnie Johnson!!
Graviton Motors.com would love to Congratulate you Lonnie on your well over due win! We see that you are also interested in Green technology and so are we. We are in the business of creating new electric air motors that can achieve driving from state to state. We would like to discuss a partnership if you care to have a sit down to see the new technology that Graviton Motors is trying to get developed. We are trying to get more votes to get a grant from Chase goto: https://www.missionmainstreetgrants.com/business/detail/138274
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Each paragraph is 1 comment out of only 48 comments.
I think the public has a long way to go before it will abandon the 'Get rich quick' financial savior dream that people have of making an invention and striking it automatically rich. They immediately assume one man's months or years of effort trumps the effort of thousands of employees over the course of 20 years. I wonder how many jobs this is going to cost for Hasbro in the coming months.
Stay classy, America.