Alan Amron

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Alan Amron has invented a battery-powered squirt gun, a digital photo frame, even a laser system that may someday provide a visible first-down line for fans inside NFL stadiums. He holds 40 U.S. patents, but he’s most interested in an invention for which he gets no credit: the Post-it Note, that ubiquitous sticky-back product made into a worldwide success by the 3M Company.

Amron, 67, says he invented what he called the Press-on Memo in 1973, a full year before 3M scientists developed what later became known as the Post-it Note. Although Amron settled a previous lawsuit against 3M, he’s suing again in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. He says the company breached its previous agreement not to take credit. The settlement is confidential.

Now Amron wants $400 million in damages — and something he says is even more important to him.

“l just want them to admit that l am the inventor and that they will stop saying that they are the inventor,” Amron said in a recent interview. “Every single day that they keep claiming they invented it damages my reputation and defames me.”

3M, based in Maplewood, Minn., is one of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones industrial average on the New York Stock Exchange. The maker of Scotch tape, Ace bandages, sandpaper, films, office products, window insulation, paint remover and hundreds of other products earned more than $30 billion in revenue in 2015, according to the company’s website.

The company says Post-it Notes were invented by 3M scientists Arthur Fry and Spencer Silver, both members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Silver came up with the adhesive — one that could be used over and over yet not mar surfaces to which it attached — and Fry the idea of using it for the small, yellow squares of paper to become sticky-back notes.

“3M developed Post-it Notes without any input or inspiration from Mr. Amron and it is false and misleading for him to state or suggest that he created, invented, or had any role in the product’s development,” said company spokesman Donna Fleming Runyon in an e-mail. The company declined to comment further on the lawsuit.

Fry, now 84 and retired, is named as a defendant in Amron’s lawsuit, but Silver is not. Fry did not respond to an e-mail and a phone message seeking comment. Silver also is retired, Runyon said.

No trial date is set for Amron’s lawsuit, which survived a 3M initial attempt last month to get it thrown out based in part on the prior settlement of similar claims. A federal judge has ordered both sides into mediation to possibly reach a settlement.