Lonnie Johnson, the man who created the Super Soaker water gun, was awarded $73 million in unpaid royalties from giant toy maker Hasbro.
Johnson, who founded the Atlanta-based company behind the Super Soaker, filed a lawsuit against Hasbro for underpaid royalties in the sales of the wildly popular water gun, according to the AJC.com.
From AJC.com:
Johnson Research and Development was founded by nuclear engineer, Tuskegee University Ph.D. and former NASA scientist Lonnie Johnson in 1989. It was the same year Johnson 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.
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.
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