Los Angeles Jurors Award $33M in Suit Against Pentel

A Los Angeles jury has awarded nearly $33 million to a couple who claimed that the Pentel corporation stole their marketing plan for a $2 gel pen.

City News Service says jurors made the award Thursday in a fraud and breach-of-contract lawsuit against Japan-based Pentel Co. Ltd. and its Torrance-based American subsidiary. The jurors included actors Lorenzo Lamas and Anna Maria Horsford.

The suit was filed by the husband-and-wife owners of Concept Chaser, an ad agency in El Segundo. They claimed that Pentel stole their plan to market the HyperG pen to college students instead of doctors and professionals through a “smooth writing” contest.

The defense argued that Pentel came up with the marketing ideas on its own.

Pentel’s lawyer did not immediately return a call for comment Friday.