It's Tucson toy inventor vs. Marvel, Round 2

Stephen Kimble said representatives from Marvel's toy division underestimated him when they took an idea he pitched to the company more than a decade ago and turned it into their own toy line.

"They didn't know I was a lawyer," Kimble said. "They thought I was just some yahoo from Tucson."

He filed suit, and in 2000 a federal jury sided with Kimble, giving him 3.5 percent of Marvel's net product sales of the web-shooting toy. Marvel appealed, but it settled for paying a 3 percent royalty in 2001.

Now, Kimble says, Marvel - which the Walt Disney Co. announced in August that it's buying for $4 billion - is stiffing him on royalties he's been owed since Marvel started outsourcing the Web Blaster line to Hasbro in 2007.

"Marvel appreciates being given an opportunity to comment, but it has a policy of declining to comment on pending litigation," Marvel's New York-based attorney, David Fleischer, said in an e-mail.

Kimble is asking for back royalties, attorney fees and punitive damages. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, doesn't list a financial figure of what he's seeking, saying the amount will be determined at trial.

Kimble originally designed his own web-shooting toy that shot Silly String in the 1980s with his son, Kane, who is now a 33-year-old detective in Phoenix. Kane was a big comic book fan, and "Spider-Man" was his favorite, Kimble said. Designing a toy web shooter on a lark helped them bond, he said.

"Some fathers and sons make Soap Box Derby carts," Kimble said. "My son and I worked on a Spider-Man toy."

Kimble and his then-girlfriend Susan Cardillo-Emerich pitched the idea to the president of Toy Biz, Marvel's toy division, in New York City in 1990.

Higher-ups told Kimble they liked the idea but the timing wasn't right. He received his patent in 1991 and a rejection letter from Marvel in 1992.

In 1996, Marvel debuted the Web Blaster, much to Kimble's surprise.

"A friend called and said: 'Congratulations! You got your toy made. Yeah, I saw a commercial for it on Nickelodeon,' " Kimble said. "So I go to Toys "R" Us, and lo and behold, there's the toy."

Marvel contended that its Web Blaster didn't violate Kimble's patent and that its device was developed independently in 1995. In a 2001 settlement, Marvel agreed to pay Kimble quarterly royalties, including those it owed him since the toy hit the market.

Kimble declined to say how much money he's made from the invention, saying the settlement forbids him from specifying the amount, but he did note that "it's in the seven-figure area."

"I've done fairly well because of it," Kimble said. "I bought my fair amount of toys, too."

Kimble said Marvel told him it no longer needed to pay him because it doesn't produce Web Blasters itself.

"They say, 'Hey, we're not making the toy, so we don't have to pay you,' " Kimble said, "But they're still making money off the toy. They're still getting royalties from Hasbro."

On Nov. 6, a federal magistrate heard arguments from Kimble and Fleischer. The magistrate will make recommendations that will go to a judge.

Kimble is prepared for a long fight.

"Stan Lee, the inventor of Spider-Man, had to sue Marvel because they wouldn't pay them," Kimble said, referencing Lee's 2002 lawsuit against Marvel for a percentage of TV and movie profits. The suit was settled for an undisclosed sum in 2005. "They're certainly not afraid of suing and being sued by people."