Giving up to the ghost

By ROBERT TRIGAUX

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 7, 2000

Sometimes even the ghost of an inventor gets its due.

Jerome Lemelson was a prolific inventor who died in 1997. His creations ranged from manufacturing equipment and bar-code processes to the technology behind Mattel's Hot Wheels toy cars.

Lemelson is gone but a partnership representing his interests lives on. Hundreds of companies have received letters urging them to pay licensing fees on Lemelson's patents or face an expensive lawsuit.

St. Petersburg's Jabil Circuit, a fast-growing contract electronics manufacturer, was one of 88 companies last year facing a patent infringement lawsuit brought by Lemelson's supporters.

Like a lot of companies nailed by Lemelson lawyers, Jabil's initial response was to fight what seemed little more than a posthumous shakedown. After all, Lemelson's patents were vague at best and the technology in question was broadly used by manufacturers.

In June, Jabil decided it was a better business decision to settle than to spend big bucks fighting a ghost and its lawyers. For a relatively modest licensing fee, Jabil got the rights to continue using its manufacturing processes. And the company got dropped from the lawsuit.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.