OTHER NEWS - July 18, 1991

Water Bed Inventor Awarded $6.45 Million: Charlie Hall of Santa Rosa, Calif., decreed by a jury to be the inventor of the modern water bed, has won $6.45 million in damages from a company that sold water beds after rejecting his offer of a license. “I would hope that people would now have a great deal more respect for patents,” Hall said. U.S. District Judge John Vukasin rejected the jury’s conclusion that Intex had willfully violated Hall’s patent, a ruling that averted the prospect of triple damages. Intex’s lawyer, Francis Utecht, said the Long Beach-based company plans to appeal.