Ford wins patent battle

A US court has handed car maker Ford a double victory in its dispute with Eagle Harbor Holdings (EHH) after ruling that it was not liable for patent infringement and that its trade secrets were misappropriated.

A jury at the US District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled last week that Ford did not infringe four patents owned by technology licensing company EHH covering technology used in a car computer system.

In court documents filed in 2011, EHH claimed that Ford’s Sync computer system, which is used in its Focus and C-Max models, infringed its patents. According to Reuters, EHH had requested $240 million in damages.

The Sync system can be operated by an individual’s voice to take phone calls or listen to music on an iPod.

In response, Ford claimed that all of the patents asserted against it were invalid and filed a counterclaim alleging trade secrets misappropriation.

The jury, in its March 26 decision, ruled that EHH’s claims in two of the patents, US numbers 7,778,739 and 8,006,119, did “not contain an adequate written description” and were invalid.

Ford’s request to invalidate the remaining patents, US numbers 6,615,137 and 7,146,260, was rejected but the company was cleared of infringement.

The car company was also successful in convincing a jury that its trade secrets had been used by EHH.

In 2007, MediusTech, a subsidiary of EHH, received a document that covered some of the designs for Ford’s Sync system.

MediusTech received the document, titled ‘Sync – Traffic, Directions, & Information’, when it was working as an adviser for Navox, a technology company that worked with Ford to develop the Sync system.

Ford claimed that EHH was aware that the information in the document was confidential, and that the company had made money after using the confidential information to obtain a patent, which enabled it to agree licensing deals with other companies.

The jury agreed with the claims.

Ford did not respond to WIPR’s request for comment, but a spokesperson told news publication Reuters: “We are pleased with the results of this case and the company will continue to defend itself against meritless claims”.

EHH did not respond to a request for comment.