http://garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=725192&postcount=48
Other than being a Craftsman guy I happened to interview with the Sears legal department in 1981 in San Francsico and the lawsuit was still going on. The attorney I interviewed with called Mr. Roberts "Mr. Ratchet."
If you do a google search for Peter M. Robers you will find a lot of info. He finally did collect his money.
One of the misnomers is that Sears stole his quick release design. This is not true. He came up with a design but his patent application was rejected. Sears hired a patent attorney for him and it was granted, and then he assigned the patent rights to Sears for almost nothing. I forget the number. Something like $5,000. But I guess that was a lot of money back then and I think he was 19 years old. Check google for the exact facts.
The problem for Sears was that they lied to him. Sears told him his patent was worth almost nothing because there was no market for his quick release designs. While Sears was telling him his invention was worth little, Sears had done studies that indicated a ratchet with a quick release would be a big seller. And then Sears went on to sell millions of quick release ratchets with his patented design, that had been assigned to Sears.
So his first lawsuit was to get the profits made off of his patented design, a patent that he sold to Sears, because Sears told him the patent had little monetary value. He waited a long time because I think google says he went into the Air Force, and he is a little guy against Sears.
Mr. Roberts is still alive and still inventing.
