When Michael Powell invented a way for Home Depot to avoid accidents with their saws, he asked Home Depot for $2000 per unit. All told, it would have cost Home Depot around $4 million dollars to install this across their stores.

Instead, Home Depot opted to steal the invention, and not pay a cent. When a Home Depot executive was later told Powell might have a claim against the company, he responded “Fuck Michael Powell. Let him sue us.”

So Powell did. And he won. His settlement is worth roughly $25 million dollars.

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