engineermike

I read somewhere that the Ecoboost DI system varies fuel pressure, rather than pulsewidth, to change fuel flow rate. There is apparently a potential patent imfringement around this:

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/...ntcmp=features

MadocHandyman

Who owns the patent, Apple or Samsung? ;-)

Funny though, the spokesman for Ford is named Nissan!

"TMC now claims that something similar to it "
Is that really infringement when something similar is being used?

Centexguy

Blah blah blah.

MadocHandyman

Double post!

MadocHandyman

Kinda sounds like this guy!
http://www.zagg.com/community/blog/7...n=750k+txt+url

"patent trolls"

dodgehemi0

Wait didn't ford do this to that guy who developed the varable windshield wiper or something like that to? There was a movie made about it.

Baptyzmbyf1re

Looks like the patent was filed way back in 2002. Someone with more knowledge on how these trucks work can probably look at the text and the images (linked at the bottom of the patent filing) and see if they are close enough for it to be infringement.

http://goo.gl/DLjnE

Ford850

And lawyers wonder why they are hated...

"The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and payment of TMC’s legal fees plus triple compensatory damages for patent infringement."

Not going after what is owed them, but triple that amount.

engineermike

If Ford honestly thought they had the idea originally and was unaware of the patent, then you might be right. However, if it is discovered that Ford knew about the patent and decided to copy it anyway, then there would be punitive damages in excess of what is owed. Otherwise, there would be no reason for companies to buy patent licenses. It would give them free reign to copy all the patents they want and only have to pay the originators what they are due after a lawsuit.

HoustonFordGuy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kearns