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8A THE DAILY ASTORIAN FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2016 STICKY LAWSUIT $400M dispute lingers over Post-it inventor By CURT ANDERSON AP Legal Affairs Writer Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Alan Amron has invented a battery-powered squirt gun, a digital photo frame, even a laser system that may someday provide a vis- ible ¿rst-down line for fans inside NFL stadiums. He holds 40 U.S. patents, but he’s most interested in an invention for which he gets no credit: the Post-it Note, that ubiquitous sticky-back product made into a worldwide success by the 3M Company. Amron, 67, says he invented what he called the Press-on Memo in 1973, a full year before 3M scientists developed what later became known as the Post-it Note. Although Amron settled a pre- vious lawsuit against 3M, he’s suing again in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. He says the company breached its previous agreement not to take credit. The settlement is con¿dential. Now Amron wants $400 million in damages — and something he says is even more important to him. “l just want them to admit that l am the inventor and that they will stop saying that they are the inventor,” Amron said in a recent interview. “Every sin- gle day that they keep claiming they invented it damages my reputation and defames me.” 3M, based in Maplewood, Minnesota, is one of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Aver- age on the New York Stock Exchange. The maker of Scotch tape, Ace bandages, sandpaper, ¿lms, of¿ce prod- ucts, window insulation, paint remover and hundreds of other products earned more than $30 billion in revenue in 2015, according to the company’s website. The company says Post-it Notes were invented by 3M scientists Arthur Fry and Spen- cer Silver, both members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Silver came up with the adhesive — one that could be used over and over yet not mar surfaces to which it attached — and Fry the idea of using it for the small, yellow squares of paper to become sticky-back notes. “3M developed Post-it Notes without any input or inspiration from Mr. Amron and it is false and mislead- ing for him to state or suggest that he created, invented, or had any role in the product’s development,” said company spokeswoman Donna L. Flem- ing Runyon in an email. The company declined to comment further on the lawsuit. Fry, now 84 and retired, is named as a defendant in Amron’s lawsuit, but Silver is not. Fry did not respond to an email and a phone message seeking comment. Silver also is retired, Runyon said. The history of inven- tion is full of people com- peting for credit for the same idea, and often things come about because smart people are working separately. Take the microchip: Texas Instru- Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., left, answers a question, as Republican presi- dential candidate, businessman Donald Trump listens, during the Republican presidential debate sponsored by CNN, Salem Media Group and the Washington Times at the University of Miami, Thursday, in Coral Gables, Fla. Republican candidates clash over party unity AP Photo/Alan Diaz Alan Amron shows his inventions, in West Palm Beach, Fla., Monday. Amron is suing 3M Company in a South Florida federal court in a dispute over who invented the ubiquitous Post-it Note. 3M Corporate Communications/AP Spencer Silver, left and Art Fry, right, hold a Post-It Note pad. Alan Amron, an inventor with 40 patents, claims that he invented what he called the Press-On Memo in 1973, a year before Fry and Silver, 3M scientists, developed what later became known as the Post-It Note. Amron is suing 3M for $400 million in damages. AP Photo/Alan Diaz Alan Amron talks to a reporter in West Palm Beach, Fla. ments and Fairchild Semicon- ductor battled for a decade in court over who came ¿rst and deserved the patent, deciding amid the wrangling it was best to work out a licensing deal for both companies. Amron said his idea in 1973 came about with chewing gum. He was looking for a way to stick a note on his refrigera- tor for his wife and used gum, providing inspiration for the adhesive he would use on his Press-on Memo. That year he took the sticky notes to a New York trade show and met brieÀy with two 3M execu- tives, Amron said, but nothing came of the meeting. Fry and Silver came up with what 3M originally called the Press ‘n’ Peel memo pad in 1974, but it wasn’t brought to the market until 1977 and didn’t really take off until 1980, when it was renamed the Post-it Note. It’s now one of the top-selling items in 3M’s consumer products division, which in 2015 earned $4.4 bil- lion for all products, company ¿gures show. Post-it Notes have become so iconic that in the 1997 movie “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion,” the title characters, played by Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sor- vino, claim credit for invent- ing them to impress their for- mer classmates. It was also in 1997 that Amron sued 3M claiming he was the true inventor. The case was settled, and Amron agreed to release the company from any future claims, which intel- lectual property lawyers say could make his new Florida lawsuit dif¿cult to win. “I would predict what he has left perhaps is the enforce- ment of a settlement agreement but not the claims he is pur- suing,” said Miami attorney Jeffrey Feldman, who is not involved in the case. “The ¿rst thing I would want to know is whether or not there was an agreement between them regarding who was allowed to say what.” Amron said the agreement was that neither could claim credit because, years earlier, a Swiss inventor had suppos- edly devised a similar prod- uct. But that turned out to be a less-useful adhesive, not the entire sticky note, and Amron said he felt 3M used the Swiss tale to trick him into the settle- ment — and is now breaching that deal by claiming credit for the product. No trial date is set for Amron’s lawsuit, which sur- vived a 3M initial attempt last month to get it thrown out based in part on the prior set- tlement of similar claims. A federal judge has ordered both sides into mediation to possi- bly reach a settlement and set various legal deadlines through December of this year. Meanwhile, 3M contin- ues to invent things. Accord- ing to the company’s year-end 2015 statement, 565 U.S. pat- ents were granted to 3M — bringing its total to more than 105,000. By STEVE PEOPLES and JULIE PACE Associated Press MIAMI — New divisions erupted in the Republican Par- ty’s presidential contest on Fri- day amid competing calls for party unity as the GOP scram- bled to blunt Donald Trump’s momentum. Trump intensi¿ed his insistence that party leaders embrace his candidacy while unveiling a signi¿cant new ally at a press conference at his Palm Beach resort. Standing at Trump’s side, retired neurosur- geon Ben Carson endorsed his former GOP rival and warned that a failure to rally behind him would “fracture the party in an irreparable way.” Carson said Friday that he and Trump “buried the hatchet” after months of polit- ical wrangling, describing the front-runner as a “very cere- bral” person. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, ¿ghting for his political life ahead of his home state’s piv- otal Tuesday primary, charged that Trump himself could destroy the party given the many Republicans who vow never to support the New York real estate mogul. “I certainly think it would fracture it,” Rubio said of a Trump nomination on CBS’s “This Morning. “There is a very signi¿cant number of Republicans that will never vote for him. And you can’t win unless the party’s united.” The fresh signs of GOP chaos follow a surprisingly civil debate Thursday night days ahead of high-stakes pri- mary elections in Florida and Ohio. A restrained Trump used the latest presidential debate to send a none-too-subtle mes- sage to Republicans still wary of his insurgent candidacy: “Be smart and unify.” Cruz and Rubio toned down their rhetoric, too, concluding that all-out attacks against Trump didn’t work. “I can’t believe how civil it’s been up here,” Trump declared at one point in Thurs- day’s face-off of the GOP’s ¿nal four. The candidates now charge out of Miami with four days left to make their ¿nal argu- ments before next week’s all-important big-state presi- dential primaries. Trump was heading to St. Louis and Chicago after appearing with Carson; John Kasich headed for his must- win home state of Ohio; Rubio made his home-stand in Flor- ida and Cruz was shuttling from Florida to Illinois. In all, 367 Republican del- egates are at stake Tuesday in Illinois, Missouri, North Car- olina, Ohio and the Northern Mariana Islands, a delegate haul that could go a long way toward determining the GOP nominee. Democrats Hillary Clin- ton and Bernie Sanders, too, will be competing on Tues- day, with Clinton out to regain momentum after her startling loss to Sanders in Michigan this week. Trump’s rivals, in a desper- ate scramble to halt his march to the nomination, gradually ramped up their criticism as the latest debate wore on. Cruz, eager to cement his position as the party’s last best alternative to Trump, had a string of criticisms of the GOP front-runner, too, saying Àatly at one point: “His solutions don’t work.” When it was over, Trump pronounced it an “elegant” discussion. He was clearly intent on projecting a less bombastic — and more pres- idential — image. W A NTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber PLEASE ADOPT A PET! N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500 Gunner 2 1/2 yea r old Pit-Terrier Blen d . “W hen light is gon e, love rem a in s shin in g.” --E .B. 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