LOS ANGELES -- A former teenage inventor who claimed giant Suzuki Motor Co. stole his design for an off-road motorcycle suspension system has been awarded up to $19 million by a federal court jury.
Donald Richardson, 31, was awarded worldwide royalties for the unique floating shock absorber he invented and patented when he was 19 and that he contended Suzuki misappropriated and installed on up to 1.7 million of its bikes.
'Suzuki just couldn't acknowledge that a young, American garage inventor could actually do better than their in-house people. This trial has proved them wrong,' said Theresa Middlebrook, one of Richardson's attorneys.
Richardson, now a building contractor who lives in Northern California, said his youthful obsession with motorcycles was soured after his experience with the Japanese motorcycle and automotive manufacturer seven years ago.
'My spirit was broken after Suzuki took advantage of me,' he told reporters.
Richardson's attorney, Robert W. Driscoll, said the jury told Suzuki to pay Richardson 50 cents for each 'Full-Floater' model motorcycle sold in the United States as damages on the patent infringement. For stealing trade secrets, the jury assessed Suzuki $12 for each of the bikes sold worldwide, Driscoll said.
Estimates of the total damage award varied widely because attorneys for each side could not agree on Suzuki's sales figures. Driscoll said the award should amount to $19 million, but Suzuki attorney Richard Rockwell said the figure was closer to $6 million.
Suzuki attorneys also said they would consider an appeal.
Richardson did much of the early development on the shock absorber with his own college tuition money before signed a option agreement with Suzuki in the late 1970s, Driscoll said.
After the first tests were successful, Suzuki flew Richardson to Tokyo, took him to the best restaurants and had him work with company engineers on a final version.
'They were doing the final adjustments in 1979, when (Suzuki) headquarters advised him they had terminated the option,' Driscoll said. 'It turned out they had been secretly testing their own version.'
Suzuki began selling two models of the 'Full-Floater' bikes in 1981 that were equipped with suspension systems the jury decided were based on Richardson's invention.
