Wilmer Woos Jury in $240 Million Ford Patent Trial
Ford Motor Co. didn't only beat a quarter-billion dollar patent infringement lawsuit this week. The automaker's lawyers at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr turned the tables on their opponents, persuading a federal jury that Ford's accuser swiped the company's trade secrets.
March 27, 2015 at 06:38 PM
3 minute read
Ford Motor Co. didn't only beat a quarter-billion dollar patent infringement lawsuit over its Sync hands-free interface this week. The automaker's lawyers at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr turned the tables on their opponents, persuading a federal jury that Ford's accuser swiped the company's trade secrets.
Capping a 10-day trial in Tacoma, Washington, a federal jury on Thursday cleared Ford of allegations that it infringed four patents owned by Eagle Harbor Holdings LLC, a technology licensing company represented by Susman Godfrey. Eagle Harbor was seeking $240 million in damages.
Siding with a Wilmer defense team led by Michael Summersgill and William Lee, the jury concluded that Ford hadn't infringed any of five claims across the four patents. Jurors also found that claims in two of the patents were invalid because they were obvious or lacked an adequate written description, and they determined that Eagle Harbor and its CEO, Dan Preston, had misappropriated Ford's trade secrets.
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