Orv is dead, and beyond caring. I'm not interested in a war. I'm interested in uncovering and exposing hitherto unknown or unpublicized historical connections. We shall see if anything worth publishing comes of this. I'm sure Orv was a babe in teh woods with respect to legalities, royalties, and so on. I don't know enough about Stine & Estes to make an assessment of either of them in that regard. In any case I hope to take this a decade or two back from that group if it can be demonstrated with any degree of credibility.
So in what time frame was the lawsuit was the lawsuit supposed to have happened? If it was early in the history of model rocket, I wouldn't expect Estes to have had too much money. If it was later, well... It's standard patent lore that you have to defend your patent in order for IP suits to stand up in court. If Orv was a model rocketeer, a participating member of NAR, and so on, for 5 or 10 years after Estes was selling motors and kits (and thus well aware that they were "infringing" on his patent), then I doubt whether he stood a chance in court, regardless of who had the bucks. Sometimes the law is just the law. Yeah, it might have been nice for old times sake if they had set him up with enough to retire comfortably, or a cushy "designer emeritus" position, or something. But that sort of recognition seems to be pretty rare any more. Yeah, it might have been nice if Estes had formalized the arrangement earlier, so that he got more out of it. (That's more standard IP lore. It's generally to both sides advantage to have solid agreements.) I don't have a lot of sympathy for someone who waits years and then says "oh by the way, you're going to pay me big bucks, right?" (I've got a fair amount of sympathy for someone who gets nothing, however. I guess I'd have more sympathy if there hadn't been a lawsuit.)
It was quite surely NOT $20m/year for all 40 years...
BillW (patent holder and token rich guy. And failed SW publisher, which is more relevant than you might thing.)
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.