In early 2009, Roger Hall’s prospects were excellent. He had invented a travel towel that could be easily folded and zipped into a compact form. He had applied for a design patent on his invention, and three months before the patent issued, he had a meeting with a nationwide retail chain interested in selling the towel.
But in that meeting, things took a turn for the worse. The retailer—Bed, Bath & Beyond (BB&B)—resisted Hall’s asking price. Moreover, according to Hall’s court papers, Farley Nachemin, a vice president of BB&B, said his company could have similar towels produced in Pakistan at a lower cost. Hall warned against that because he had a patent pending on the product.
