[1] The Levitron top device is a design that served as a base for the manufacture of a series of commercial toys under this brand that employ the phenomenon known as spin-stabilized magnetic levitation.
This design, with moving permanent magnets, is quite distinct from other versions which use changing electromagnetic fields, levitating various items such as a rotating world globe, model space shuttle or VW Beetle, and picture frame.
Employing principles of the magnetic field and gyroscopic stabilization, the Levitron top induces levitation through a series of interactive steps.
Hones, with the help of his father, a Physicist and employee at Los Alamos National Laboratory, analyzed the physics of the prototype, and then filed for an "improvement patent".
[7] In the 1990s, the then husband and wife partners Michael and Karen Sherlock formed the company they named "UFO" in New Mexico to market the Levitron under an oral agreement in partnership with Hones' company, Creative Gifts, Inc.[5] Efforts to formalize the agreement in writing fell apart and grew acrimonious[1] after UFO's principals learned about the device's earlier invention by Harrigan, and redesigned their website[8] to incorporate the exposé-style article "THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE LEVITRON!
[5] Creative Gifts, in turn, filed a trademark infringement suit in United States District Court of New Mexico against UFO and its owners.
The appeals court, noting that UFO had submitted a one-page opening brief with no citations to the record or discussion of the relevant law, commented in its ruling, "they have shot themselves in the foot."