Editing Levitron (section)

===Trademark litigation===
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.<ref name=patent/>  Efforts to formalize the agreement in writing fell apart and grew acrimonious<ref name=foot/> after UFO's principals learned about the device's earlier invention by Harrigan, and redesigned their website<ref>{{cite web|url=http://amasci.com/maglev/lev/index.html|title=Levitron Central}}</ref> to incorporate the exposé-style article "THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE LEVITRON!",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.amasci.com/maglev/lev/expose1.html|title=THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE LEVITRON!}}</ref> which accused Hones of stealing the invention from Harrigan.<ref name=patent/>  Creative Gifts, in turn, filed a [[trademark infringement]] suit in United States District Court of New Mexico against UFO and its owners.  At trial and on appeal to the Tenth Circuit<ref>''Creative Gifts, Inc. v. UFO,'' 235 F.3d 540 (10th Cir. 2000)(New Mexico)</ref> Creative Gifts' trademark claims were upheld, and all of UFO's counterclaims were rejected after UFO, which had been representing itself as a [[pro se]] defendant, was sanctioned by the court for abuse of discovery.  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."