I had a master licensing agreement with the company CCL for my rotating label, Spinformation. We shared the sub-licensing rights.
Soon, a company in Dublin, Ireland called Kinelworth licensed our technology to provide to their customers.
Before you know it, they had a request for our label technology from LEGO, Inc. My office in Turlock happily made samples.
Shortly after, I left on a vacation with my family traveling around the United States. When we returned 6 months later, I was sculpting a bust of my father-in-law John Kimball in the garage when my wife, Janice, showed me a present my son had received for his birthday.
It was a new LEGO product called Bionicles, and it featured a rotating label.
But LEGO had never licensed my label technology. I think they felt that it was just too expensive. And they were right — the pressure-sensitive design was very expensive.
So, they reverse-engineered it and found another way to apply a rotating label that was cheaper.
You see, I didn’t invent the concept of a rotating label. I had patents on how to manufacture it.
A rotating label was patented way back in 1953 and 1958, but it was just a concept. There was no way of manufacturing it.
I was stunned, disappointed, and very upset when I learned that LEGO had reverse-engineered my idea.
I was extremely emotional, which is how I ended up suing LEGO in San Francisco federal court.
The process of suing LEGO for patent infringement was very long.
The day I gave my deposition was particularly long and tedious. It took up a full day and two reams of paper.
After three long years, we settled two weeks before our case was set to go to trial. In the end, we had argued over just two words.
Yes, it was painful and expensive. But, looking back, it was a wonderful experience, because I learned priceless insights. I don’t have any hard feelings towards LEGO — they’re a wonderful toy company.
Here’s what I know now:
1. Try to stay calm when things get a little rocky. There are always two sides to every story.
2. Try not to get emotional. I know, easier said than done.
3. Patents are just words that can and will be interpreted differently by a patent examiner, a judge, and even a jury. It’s a slippery slope, at best.
Thanks for reading,
Stephen Key
inventRight CoFounder
