"I do not believe it was overturned at all, Lionel paid it off (perhaps at a reduced rate) as part of the last bankruptcy."
The original verdict was completely thrown out in federal appeals court for a variety of reasons and remanded for retrial or settlement. Lionel filed bankruptcy to buy time, and in bankruptcy court, the judge was apparently much less sympathetic to the MTH case than the Michigan judge and jury, and a settlement was reached. It was sealed, but various rumors were that it was on the order of $12 million including licensing rights to one or more MTH patents for toy train smoke. So yes it was overturned on appeal. MTH's alternative to settling was to retry the case before the bankruptcy judge (no jury), and their lawyers apparently didn't think that was a good strategy. So you could say that in the end no one won. MTH's legal fees and expenses probably ate up a good bit of the settlement, once you include the plaintiff's attorneys' fees and the cost of many years of litigation. Lionel obviously also had large legal fees as well. A total waste of time and legal effort, IMO.
