A former NASA engineer who invented the wildly popular Nerf dart guns has been awarded $72.8 million in a royalty fight with toy company Hasbro.
In issuing the award, arbitrator Richard Mainland of Fulbright & Jaworski held that Hasbro had breached a licensing agreement with Atlanta-based Johnson Research & Development Co. by failing to pay millions of dollars in royalties for company president and founder Lonnie Johnson’s invention of the toy that fires foam darts. Hasbro sold the line of dart blasters under its Nerf brand. The military and sports fantasy toy dart guns are most often used in games of dart tag.
