Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC, case number: No. 13-720., was a case about the essential to pay royalties to the inventor of the Spider-Man toy when the patent had expired. The Court declined to revoke its 1964 decision in Brulotte v. Thys Co., holding that the owner of patent cannot charge royalties for the use of his invention after its patent has expired. In year 1990, Stephen Kimble invented and patented a toy that allowed kids to shoot webs from pressurized foam string and the toy is also as known as spider-man toy. In year 1995, Marvel Entertainment began manufacturing a new toy which is similar toy to Kimble’s patent. Marvel starting to sell it and called it “Web Blaster”. Year 1997, Kimble (plaintiff) sued Marvel (defendant) for patent infringement. In year 2001, defendant agree to purchase the patent from Kimble and pay royalties for 3% royalty on “net product sales” to Kimble without an expiration date. At the time, Marvel paid Kimble $516,214.62 to Kimble. …show more content…
Thys Co. court case. According to that court case, the company no longer needed to pay royalties after the patent expired. The district court granted relief. Based on 35 US.C. 154(a)(2), Contents and term of patent; provisional rights: Subject to the payment of fees under this title, such grant shall be for a term beginning on the date on which the patent issues and ending 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States. Marvel Entertainment and Kimble argued about this case on 31 March 2015 in the Supreme Court of the United States. On 22 June 2015, the court announced that the defendant will no need to pay royalty to the plaintiff