Feuding former partners shine a light on dark recesses of torch tycoon's empire

You wouldn't think there was much passion to be had from the manufacture of battery-powered torches. But then you wouldn't know the tawdry family of Tony Maglica, inventor of the hugely successful Maglite and, these days, a man with a vendetta to wage against his ex-girlfriend and the two middle-aged business rivals he once considered to be his sons.

For the past two years, Mr Maglica has been embroiled in a bitter court case with his ex's children. His complaint? That they stole secrets from his company, Mag Instrument, to set up their own rival business, and then issued advertising material boasting that their torches were better than his.

Mr Maglica, who is 72, has told the court on many occasions that he feels hurt and betrayed, that he never expected such a thing to happen. His adversaries, Christopher and Stephen Halasz, meanwhile, have their own version of events. As far as they are concerned they simply went into the one business they really knew. And if Mr Maglica didn't like it, it was because he was still bitter from his spectacularly acrimonious break-up with their mother.

The affair has turned into quite the soap opera, not least because the family is a fixture in the higher social circles of suburban Orange County, south of Los Angeles, and has hobnobbed in the past with such political luminaries as Ronald Reagan and the elder George Bush.

Tony and Claire Maglica were together for almost 20 years, and although they never married they felt close enough for her to take his name. Christopher, an engineer, worked in Mag Instrument's research and development department for six years, while Stephen, a lawyer, worked regularly as a consultant on company business.

They enjoyed many happy and fruitful years, thanks to the success of the aluminium-cased Maglite, whose use as an offensive weapon as well as a torch made it popular with hunters, single women and police departments.

The idyll came to an abrupt end in 1992, when Claire discovered that Mr Maglica intended to bequeath the company exclusively to his children from a previous marriage. When she challenged him on it, he threw her out. She, in turn, sued him for $200m (£129m) in alimony, opening an eight-year legal battle that ended when Mr Maglica finally agreed to pay her $29m.

Christopher and Stephen, meanwhile, moved to Denver and, with their mother's financial help, set up Bison Sportslights. They claimed that their torches, which first went on sale in 1998, solved an age-old problem of eliminating the "black hole" in the centre of the light beam.

Mr Maglica insisted they had stolen his research and his ideas. He was also strongly sceptical that they had solved the black hole problem.

Mr Maglica is winning every legal battle. Last month, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that no party should "use, disclose or otherwise exploit" the trade secrets of Mag Instrument. Earlier this month, a jury ruled against the Halaszes, finding that they had stolen trade secrets and engaged in false advertising. Mag Instrument was granted a permanent injunction preventing Bison from continuing a number of its business practices.

Although the brothers are continuing the legal struggle, they also hope that they can patch up their relationship with Mr Maglica and put the bitterness behind them. Stephen Halasz recently told the Los Angeles Times he never intended to cause offence and that his company's business plan did not focus on more than a tiny area of Mag Instrument's market. "I could see if I snuck up to his house and punctured the tyres on his car why he'd think it was a grudge match," he said. "I don't see how this can be about anything other than my mother."

Mr Maglica continues to insist that he was betrayed. "I trusted Stephen with all my personal information," he said. "He knew everything about me, like a doctor."

The case continues.