HD offered him $1200/unit for 8 units, according to what the article said. That he would have supplied every store eventually would be open to speculation, but not unreasonable. I doubt that his
net from his invention would have been $15 million.
I'm sure in hindsight, HD wishes they had gone about it differently -- either paid the high price, or contracted someone else to solve the problem.
It seems that $15 million would be quite enough "punition" as it stands, but then the judge tacks on anouther $8 million to get the point across?
That doesn't come out of HD's pockets, it comes out of the pocket of every HD customer through higher prices.
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I’m sure their attorneys weren’t aware how they were going about finding a solution for this problem. The way this came about it had lawsuit written all over it from day one.