Water Bed Inventor Wins Case: A jury in San Francisco has awarded Santa Rosa, Calif., inventor Charlie Hall $4.8 million after finding that a Long Beach company had been importing water beds from Taiwan that closely resembled the mattresses he made in the late 1960s. The six-member U.S. District Court jury took 1 1/2 days to reach its decision. It found that Intex Plastics Sales Co. of Long Beach had “willfully infringed” on Hall’s 1971 water bed patent.
From Times Staff and Wire Reports