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In 1987, while working out of his garage in Arizona, inventor/snowmobile
shop owner Ron Chasteen developed the first successful computerized fuel-injection
system for a snowmobile. Like so many inventions, this one was developed
to fill a need, because Chasteen found that he was regularly getting complaints
from angry customers who had been left stranded by their snowmobiles.
As Chasteen explains: "They were stranded because the snowmobiles I had
sold them were calibrated to work at a certain temperature and altitude.
When they took their machines to other altitudes and temperatures, they
stalled. That's because the then-current carburetor technology was not
able to handle such changes."
Chasteen's answer: an electronic fuel injected snowmobile, and since
there were none in existence, he decided to invent one. After many hours
of work, he tested his prototype, and he and an investor friend brought
it to Polaris.
Polaris engineers were impressed, and told Chasteen that "on a scale
of 1 to 10, I'd hit a 12." They said it was the greatest advance they'd
ever seen in the snowmobile industry, and called it "state of the art."
Polaris agreed to accept Chasteen's ideas in confidence and asked him
not to show his invention to anyone else. They later invited him back
for further testing, again reiterating their interest in working with
him.
Unfortunately, almost from the start -- as Chasteen was to later discover
-- Polaris and Fuji were stealing his trade secrets. At trial, it was
disclosed that two days after the original meeting, Polaris' Vice President
of Engineering flew to Japan to meet with representatives of Fuji and
immediately started passing along Ron Chasteen's confidential information.
This situation continued for several months, with Chasteen continuing
to supply information to Polaris, which they passed on to Fuji. Then,
suddenly, in October 1988, after many months of regular communication,
Polaris executives told the inventor that they had shelved the project.
Disappointed, Chasteen began showing his invention to other companies.
Two years later, Chasteen saw an ad in a snowmobile magazine for
Polaris' new fuel-injected two-stroke snowmobile, with an engine manufactured
by Fuji. Their ad had copied -- almost verbatim -- the bullet points that
had been listed in the original package he gave Polaris!
After much consideration, Chasteen decided to sue both Polaris and Fuji.
Following a 10-year legal battle, Ron Chasteen finally won his multi-million
dollar verdict, one of the largest ever awarded to a solo inventor, and
a victory which never could have been attained without contingent fee
litigation. The settlement marks the final chapter in this remarkable
David and Goliath legal battle.
Says Niro Scavone intellectual property attorney Joe Hosteny: "Here again,
we see a pattern. This case is not unlike the Noel Atkinson case that
was described in a previous quiz answer. In both cases, large companies
told solo inventors that there would be a 'partnership,' all the while
taking the inventor's trade secrets and/or other intellectual property
without planning to properly recompense him (or her). While most corporations
are honorable, unfortunately, some have treated solo inventors unscrupulously.
With contingent fee litigation, the solo inventor with a good case
gets the chance to have his (or her) day in court!"
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