Claim against science toy company
By Brent Felgner -- Gifts and Dec, 8/24/2005 11:51:00 AM
DENVER—A few months after his licensing agreement with a Seattletoy company ended, Steve Spangler says he was walking through Salt Lake City International airport on his way home toColorado, when something in a retail store caught his eye.
It was a science kit similar to the many he has invented and developed over the years. Spangler, a former school teacher, has built a career in television and public speaking about science education. And since the early 90s, his company, Steven Spangler Inc., develops and licenses science kits. His NBC TV show, “News for Kids,” was earlier syndicated in 185 cities. Under various licenses, his kits have sold mostly in toy specialty stores, teacher supply stores, museum stores and even airport shops around the country.
The product that caught his eye this day, however, wasn’t his kit—at least it didn't have the same name or packaging. But the closer he looked, the more Spangler says he realized it was his work under a different name and being made cosmetically to look like it was something different. He bought the product and brought it back to his office where it could be examined more closely. Spangler claims the science was the same, along with the parts and instructions, much of which he says were lifted almost word-for-wordBut it didn't end there. The kit was manufactured by his former licensee, Scientific Explorer of Seattle.
“I looked over and I saw a kit I had developed. It was by Scientific Explorer but it wasn't mine and it wasn't part of my license agreement,” Spanger recalls. “I don't know the extent of the problem. We've licensed about six or eight kits with them and I've tried to find as many variations on those kits as possible, but on some of the kits, there have been two or three variations that we've found."
After months of unreturned phone calls to the company and communications from his lawyer, Spangler last week filed suit in federal court here charging Scientific Explorer and its president, Bill Rives, with trademark and copyright infringement in a seven-count complaint alleging his ideas, products and trade secrets were misappropriated after their license agreement ended in August, 2004.
“I need to discuss this with our lawyers before we have any comment on it,” Rives told playthings.com by telephone. “I really don’t want to comment on our relationship with [Spangler]. We don't think there's any merit to his claims.”
The suit states that after Scientific Explorer approached Spangler in the summer of 2001, it signed a licensing agreement in August and a confidentiality agreement the following January, after which Spangler disclosed intellectual property and trade secrets about the kits.
Spangler tells playthings.com the discovery process will be necessary to determine the extent of the alleged infringement and the sales involved.
Scientific Explorer is a science and educational toy company, which has been selling to specialty retail channels since 1993. Its portfolio currently contains about 50 products, according to Rives.
Among other things, Spangler's suit alleges
• His product, “Test Tube Dinos,” which used to be in a cardboard box, is now marketed by Scientific Explorer as “Growing Giant Dinos,” in a plastic case.
• Spangler's “Fizz, Bobble, Erupt,” has been repackaged as “Bubbling Potions.”
• “Extreme Glow” has morphed into “Atomic Glow.”
• “Crazy” has become "Wild Crystals."
The complaint cites several additional instances. Spangler says he doesn't recall the sales of his products during the license agreement, except that they were in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” His royalties were 10 percent of net sales during the agreement, according to the eight-page license.
“It's not the farm but it's significant—it's part of my living. It's not vacation money,” Spangler says. “This cannot [be allowed to] happen in this industry. I'm going to do what I can ... With a case this cut and dried, there's no way I can sleep at night and continue in this business unless we move forward.”
The lawsuit seeking treble damages of a monetary award is to be determined at a jury trial.
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