Mr. Ed

My first posting and I'm in panic mode. I ordered my GT on 12/16. I realize I'm not buying a car from Baskin Robbins, but I would like my 125 different dash light flavors. More importantly, I want the extra gauges, message center and dash accents. I've emailed the guy suing Ford over the MyColor patent a couple of times, including today. For those of you in my situation, here's our pal Frank's response. I've deleted his (and mine) email address. You can find my email address in the directory, and if you know Google at all you pretty much can find Frank's quickly too.

Nevertheless, here's his point of view. By the way, I think I may attend this year's shareholder's meeting to quiz Bill and the gang about this fun stuff.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Frank Weyer"
To: "Dan
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 14:15:22 -0800
Subject: Re: Ford Mustang
Dan,
I have heard nothing further from Ford yet. I plan to file a preliminary
injunction motion next week that should move matters one way or the other.
-Frank

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan
To: <frank
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 11:48 AM
Subject: RE: Ford Mustang

> Hi Frank,
>
> Has there been any movement to bring this matter to a conclusion?
>
> Thanks for any update you may provide,
>
> Dan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Frank Weyer
> Sent: Monday, December 27, 2004 2:28 PM
> To: Dan
> Subject: Re: Ford Mustang
>
> Dan,
> There has been no resolution at this point. The only
> activity that has taken place is that Ford asked for a
> 30-day extension to respond to the complaint, which I
> granted. Ford's formal reply to the court is now due
> on January 23, 2005.
> Regards,
> Frank Weyer
>
> --- Dan wrote:
>
> > Have you and Ford come to some form of an agreement
> > yet regarding My Color?
> > I'm curious for two reasons, one I own Ford stock
> > and two, I plan on buying
> > a new Mustang with that feature. I'd appreciate it
> > if you would update me.
> > Thank you in advance.
> >
> > Dan

TURBO 05

people are still getting their orders with IUP and thats gotta be good news as far as i am concerned

Buck_Nekid

JMHO... I'm not sure it's such a wise idea to broadcast to the guy that his idea is popular and/or desireable. It gives him ammo and increases his confidence. (After all, you're a reasonable person and your correnspondence indicates that you believe his patent is similar enough to "MyColor" to inquire about the situation. A patent judge might find that interesting.) He's a lawyer... He might even find a way to use your correspondence to help bolster his case and drag this thing out longer. There's a reason that corporate lawyers tell executives to gag any comments. JMO

Ichi

Interesting post Dan. It was ok of Frank to get back to you. Has Ford been as forthcoming in response to customer queries? I wonder.
Bottom line; if its the mans patent/property he should be compensated accordingly. No one should feel any animosity towards the man for exercising his rights. If his claim proves to be valid then only Ford motor is resonsible for whatever circumstances arise from the situation.

htwag

Don't have clue regarding Frank and his background. Business is business - if he really did get this stuff going then he is intitled to compenhension. But remember what hapened to the guy with intermittent wipers: he was right but it still consumef his life AND Microsoft windows was really based on stuff Apple did but 'ol Bill changed it just enough to win in court.

Ford has deeper pockets.

bob

Windows is actually based off of Zerox stuff, I bet saying GUI at Zerox is enough to get you fired on the spot.

CurtisH

I thought his method for lighting the dash and changing the colors was fundamentally different than the MyColor system. If that is the case, then this is a nuisance lawsuit. He cannot copyright the idea, only the method of accomplishing it. Maybe someone on this sight knows more details.

Galaxie

Curtis,

a friend of mine works in R&D in a major automotive supplier.

For everything they do they have patent lawyers checking out their developments to see if it can be patented and/or is already patented.

Being that his name is used as a reference on the patent itself I am sure Delphi's lawyers took a good look at his patent and determined that it could be done.

6505pony

I did a Google search on this guy and these are some interesting links I found.

I have started thinking this Frank Weyer is a nut case. I think he is the same guy who is suing other large companies saying he invented and got a patent for assinging URL's and e-mail addresses on the internet.

See attached:

Geek news

CNET News

He will be laughed off the face of the Earth.

I think this guy is a troll and a jerk. But then again this is just my opinion.

TomServo92

This guy sounds like a real legal shark. I hope Ford decides to fight him since NSI and Register.com may not.

Eric R

If you read it all, it sounds like he has a case. One statement read that he started the XXXX.MD.com for doctors in 1998. If he infact filed the patent at that time it could take up to 2003 to be approved. The proper thing to do would have been to notify the companies of his patent pending status. Is he a shark? By all means, YES! This doesn't seem to be the American way of doing business...

TomServo92

Did you read this part?

From this, it sounds like he doesn't have a real claim.

V10

You seem to be forgetting that Delphi, the company that makes MyColor was issued their own patent on the MyColor system.


Seems to me that Mr Weyer was issued a "patent" based on an idea w/o a working model. I always thought that to get a legitimate patent you had to actually have a working model.

I think that tomorrow AM I am going to apply for a patent on "A cure for cancer". It will be based on the premise that a drug given to a patient will cure cancer. Then if any company ever comes up with a cure for cancer, I'll be able to sue that company.

6505pony

Maybe I was letting my personal feelings be expressed in my previous post more than I should have. I would be so P.O.'d if the IUP on mine or anybody else's car was halted or delayed due to this. (Even though I believe it is a supply issue.)

I have dealt with many attorneys in my profession through the years and most are ok and look out for their clients but once in awhile you run across one like this one and he is only looking out for himself and it just burns me.

I posted this info just to make sure everybody had a more complete view of what this person was about.

It is one thing to have an design that worked and was used. It is something else to try to patent the entire idea (even though your design didn't work) and sue anybody else who sucessfully followed through with the idea in a different design and make it work.

6505pony

Exactly what I was saying V10. Just beat me to the post.

Martimus

Its interesting that when I searched the patent database I found 157 patents all belonging to someone named Weyer. They covered things all across the spectrum, from Chemistry to Automobiles to the Internet. My perception following this search was this guy looks for things that don't have a patent, creates a general framework, and applies for the patent on the process himself.

Since he's a patent lawyer its simply a matter of doing his own patent search, filling out the paperwork, and sending it to the patent office. The patent he says he has on MyColor, patent number 5,975,728, was filed in 1997. If ya wanna see how generic it is check out the first two paragraphs:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?...RS=PN/5,975,728

Martimus

Here is a patent Delphi engineers have for what may turn out to be MyColor. It was filed in 2000 and holds patent number 6,575,607:

note: I made minor modifications in the above text to get rid of the emoticons that were popping up in the silliest places. I likely should have just disabled emoticons in the post but, for whatever reason, I didn't.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?...+AND+dashboard)

GottaHaveIt

I'd like to thank all involved with this patent stuff with the Ford " MyColor" I had placed an order and was then told there was a production delay, and as no-body's luck would have it so Guy comes along and then try's to say that it is his? Now after reading all of this and this Delphi had a patent in 1997 and F'n Weyer did one 1n 1999 it would appear to me that this head case searchs these thing out and finds a the holes then goes at them , looks like as in to try to settle out of court, Its no wonder that Ford has come out with all the same IUP package as the 05 GT-Coupe package. My stomach feels better and I'll now save on the Zantac and do not mind to wait for more parts to be built. Grandma always said good thing come to those who wait ! and dang I'm almost have dead The 05 Mustang after havimg driven them certainly was worth the wait. :-) .

Barricade

Production is back on. Problem resolved.
Put this thread to bed!!

Berol

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?...RS=PN/5,975,728 [/quote]
Maybe if he used the word "said" a few more times, he'd have more legal ground to stand on...