Home Depot Loses Invention Theft Case

May 27. 2010

Nationwide U.S. hardware chain, Home Depot, lost a very avoidable lawsuit in court this month, regarding stealing an invention from a man named Michael Powell. He pitched his "Safe Hands" invention to Home Depot, for a saw guard, which prevents employees of their stores, from cutting off their fingers, when slicing wood and other materials for customers. Brilliant idea. 

Powell made an offer of $2,000 per device, which would have been pocket money for hardware giant, Home Depot, even allowing them to test said invention. Instead, he was later told his invention had been rejected by the company, only for executives at Home Depot to go behind his back and steal the idea, implementing it in all their stores in America. 

Powell sued and won $3 million in damages, as ordered by U.S. District Judge Daniel Hurley, who labeled Home Depot's actions "callous and arrogant." 

A jury determined Home Depot should pay Powell $15 million in damages for their misconduct. The company plans to appeal the ruling. The Judiciary Report is of the belief the verdict should stand, as too much of this unlawful theft is transpiring in the corporate sector and it needs to desist. 

Constantly stealing patents and copyrights from independent inventors, writers, small and mid-sized companies, will also shut the Copyright Office and separately the Patent And Trademark Office, as millions of people will see no need to pay product protection fees to them anymore, if corporate giants, keep stealing and wiping out the inventions, patents and copyrights of smaller companies.

It should also be noted, corporate giants cannot solely keep said federal registration offices open based on the sums they pay for product protection, in comparison to the millions of independent inventors and writers that remit payment for their products on a regular basis.  

This form of thievery also damages economies to far greater degrees than the government estimates. When patents and copyrights are criminally stolen and improperly duplicated for financial gain, it destroys revenues for smaller companies, whose other forthcoming inventions and products, are usually wiped out, due to lack of funding after being robbed. 

This takes billions out of the economy, when smaller and mid-sized companies other products do not come to fruition, due to initial items being stolen by corporate giants, erasing revenues.

Small  and mid-sized company's revenues that are being destroyed via corporate giants stealing their products, means the other items they have in the works, will not be made, wiping out the next wave of hit products, costing the economy billions. 

So instead of two successful companies, you now have one, because the corporate giant stole from and as a result, dismantled the smaller company, to steal ideas and products they do not truly understand, as they did not create them and will poorly replicate in the marketplace. As the unsavory pattern repeats itself, thousands of smaller companies are senselessly destroyed, costing the economy billions. The Judiciary Report discussed this previously in the article "This Is Not Wall Street (The Movie)."

It is the equivalent of a dangerous food chain, where wiping out companies in the middle and or at the bottom, through theft, causes the entire financial hierarchy to collapse, as there is nothing to support the economical framework. For further reference, see the U.S. financial crisis of 2008 that is ongoing.