I was with Mattel 69-72 and most of the parts were designed and created by employees so they didn't get deals on the parts they developed for the company.
However, one fine day, a guy wonders in off the street and he was known as the "wino" because they had no idea where he was from but he had developed this toy with a gyroscope in it and they bought the design from him for next to nothing. That would become "Whizzers", an overnight sensation in the toy biz and they sold millions and even developed Mini-Whizzers that came in a can. However, something was wrong.......with the deal they'd made with the guy and his lawyer came down on Mattel and the judge awarded for the plaintiff in the amount of .10 for every Whizzer sold and the tricky part was it didn't stipulate whether that was a full size or mini and the Handlers, owners, came unglued.
The interesting part of this is that the man wasn't a jerk at all, he just thought they'd not treated him fairly and after they'd looked at the deal that had been made with him, they agreed. They had taken advantage of him, It could have been settled by just sitting down and talking to him but everyone put on their Fanner 50's to go to war.
I was with the company when Sizzlers came out, Hot Wheels with jacked up rechargeable motors that would scale at 220 mph and I got to meet the real Snake and Mongoose when Mattel signed them for their Hot Wheels. Back then, you were either Hot Wheels or Matchbox 20 but only the daring were both. They all developed later on into ambidextrous and bisexual adults.