He did, he sent letters to all the automotive companies. [/b][/quote]
That doesn't matter. Most, if not all, Fortune 500 companies DO NOT accept Unsolicited Ideas regarding product, idea, even if the idea is patented. I used to work at P&G in their Technology Acquisition Department, and we worked directly with the Patent Office/Group for P&G, as well as Unsolicited Ideas. Ford must prove they sent letters to Mr. Weyer regarding their policy . . .if theirs is similar to P&G's.

 

That doesn't matter. Most, if not all, Fortune 500 companies DO NOT accept Unsolicited Ideas regarding product, idea, even if the idea is patented. I used to work at P&G in their Technology Acquisition Department, and we worked directly with the Patent Office/Group for P&G, as well as Unsolicited Ideas. Ford must prove they sent letters to Mr. Weyer regarding their policy . . .if theirs is similar to P&G's. [/b][/quote]
Cool, I use Tide.

 

Looks like the main difference is that the system Ford uses changes the color for the entire panel, where the Delphi systems refers to being able to vary the color for individual gages.

 

They will settle. This guy waited until Ford was well into production before filling, so he's just looking to make some $$. In the event they don't settle those vechicles that already have the "my color" option, have just appreciated in value big time.

 

I think that if Delphi also has a patent then Ford should be in the clear since that is the patent that the 'My Color' is based on, and is bought from the company that holds the patent. If Mr. Weyer has any complaint it should be against the Patent Office for issuing a patent to Delphi and agains Delphi for infringement. The thing is, and I am not positive on this because I am not any sort of Patent Attourney, however, the patent that is issued is not for the idea of the varyable light color, but the means and technology behind achieving them. Thus, both Delphi and Mr, Weyer can have patents for systems that provide variable light colors as long as they are significantly different in how they accomplish the task. Its like an aircraft. The Wright brothers patented their idea when it finally worked, however, the patent was only for their means of accomplishing flight. Newer aircraft that used differing means were not patent infringement and thus there is no royalty paid to the Wright brothers or their estates today. This is the same, if Delphi created a system that is different enough to have been approved and patented, then there should be no patent infringement. The bottom line should be that, if Ford is basing their 'My Color' system on the patent issued by the patent office to Delphi, then they will not be the responsible party if it turns out that there is infringement, Delphi and the patent office will be the responsible parties.

 

To my knowledge, a patent is only good for 20 years, so even if the Wright brothers patent did cover all aircraft, their patent would have expired and they wouldn't get anything. Copyrights are a different story. Since patents expire, that is why company's such as Coca-Cola and KFC keep their recipes as trade secrets so they can keep marketing their products without someone later down the line recreating their product and making money off of it.

 

No worries. It will all be handled. Either the guy will get a nice payoff or the Ford lawyers will squash him. Either way, the mustang will keep the MY COLOR feature and everyone's happy.

 

It's my understanding that the Patent Office does not check or rule on if one patent infringes on any other. As long as the paper work is filled out correctly they will issue a patent (as long as it doesn't involve perpetual motion).

With the number of applications the Patent Office gets each day it would be an impossible task to check them all.

Infringement on a patent or copyright is decided in a court of law. They could easily decide that the first patent is too general of a description or that since other devices already have changeable display colors (car radios) neither patent is valid.

 

If Delphi has a patent, theirs just has to vary by 10% and they're in the clear. Grantsdale has a point, too. I'm not to sure on how the whole production/patent stuff falls into place. I know you can't have a product out in the public for a year THEN apply for a patent.

Seems like this will blow over since Delphi already has a patent on it. I'd bet Ford just settles out of court to get rid of the hassle.

(I'd like to have the MyColor gimmick still available when I get my Mustang, too.)

 

 

I agree, the defendant should be Delphi if anyone. Ford only uses the system, they do not produce it.

Ideas can't be patented, a process or technology can be. Also, Mr. Weyer will have to demonstrate that he first conceived the idea, and have it well documented.

 

Well that isn't entirely true... Ford does carry the technology in their cars. It is Ford's responsibility to determine whether or not the tech was illegally conceived. Furthermore if it was Ford's idea to commission Delphi (I'm guessing it is since they are advertising it so much) to produce a multi-color changeable gauge system then both are equally responsible. As it would be a project commissioned by Ford (with their oversight) and produced by Delphi.

I do think this makes the 05 rollout and official disaster... Granted MyColor is a gimmick but a very popular one at that. I believe someone posted sales with IUP where roughly 60% of all Mustangs. This injunction will prevent a very large amount of Mustangs from being sent out to their owners. Talk about a PR disaster for Ford. I would have to assume that they will woo this guy with a large cash settlement so they can commence shipping and sales once again.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... Ford should have offered MyColor SEPERATE from the IUP. This would have prevented a large amount of delays and now indefinite delay of shipment for all IUP cars. There's going to be a large amount of unhappy customers if this thing turns ugly and gets dragged into a long court process.

 

MyColor was not Ford's idea, it was offered to them by Delphi engineers. And the patent violation isn't Fords problem anyway as suppliers usually affirm that they hold all patents for the product they deliver etc etc.

 

There you go

 

Well that isn't entirely true... Ford does carry the technology in their cars. It is Ford's responsibility to determine whether or not the tech was illegally conceived. Furthermore if it was Ford's idea to commission Delphi (I'm guessing it is since they are advertising it so much) to produce a multi-color changeable gauge system then both are equally responsible. As it would be a project commissioned by Ford (with their oversight) and produced by Delphi.

I do think this makes the 05 rollout and official disaster... Granted MyColor is a gimmick but a very popular one at that. I believe someone posted sales with IUP where roughly 60% of all Mustangs. This injunction will prevent a very large amount of Mustangs from being sent out to their owners. Talk about a PR disaster for Ford. I would have to assume that they will woo this guy with a large cash settlement so they can commence shipping and sales once again.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... Ford should have offered MyColor SEPERATE from the IUP. This would have prevented a large amount of delays and now indefinite delay of shipment for all IUP cars. There's going to be a large amount of unhappy customers if this thing turns ugly and gets dragged into a long court process. [/b][/quote]
Its is not Ford's responsibility to enforce suppliers to comply with the USPTO. That's the supplier's job. Once again, Delphi pateneted, designed, and produced it. Not Ford. I've been involved with corporate litgation regarding patents, and all I can say is that Mr. Weyer would best be served by settling....quickly.

 

The problem here isn't Ford, but rather the US patent system.

It was originally conceived as a way to promote innovation, which usually incures significant research and development costs, by allowing a person or company to get a temporary government -granted monoploy (i.e., a patent) so that a competitor couldn't get a "free ride" (little or no development costs) after seeing the new invention.

Fast-forward to today, where trivial patents are granted on a regular basis. It has gotten so out of control that there are so-called "high-tech" companies that employ more lawyers than engineers.

Mycolor is something that could have been dreamed up by any 14-year-old car enthusiast, and probably was several hundred times in the past twenty years. There's no "innovation" to speak of -- the development costs are strictly related to implementation, not innovation, as they would be for any mechanical and/or electrical device such as a water pump.

Fiber optics was an innovation in its time. So were electronic fuel injection, anti-lock brakes, etc. Variable-color instrument lighting is not. Maybe 40 years ago, but not now. It's a trivial idea.

The only one getting "ripped off" in this case is the American consumer.

 

Mr. Weber better settle quickly because after already going through a patent battle. I think Delphi has him beat on several grounds.

A. They have the class code that covers motor vehicle instrument devices
B. They have a fully functional product
C. They have sold above said product
D. They included Mr. Webers Patent information in their original submittal and as such Mr. Weber was advised of said submittal as referenced by Delphi on there submission to the Patent office and Mr. Weber was given adequet time to respond to said submission.
E. Delphi's ,my color has submissions for independant gage coloring control and includes additional back end memory controls, making there system in function and description quite different from Mr. Webers Patent.

F. Ford knows that deletion of the IUP My Color option will take the fire out of 05 mustang sales. People may decide to wait until 06 and see if Ford comes up with another cool gage control system or just wait to purchase to see if this case can be resolved quickly. I suspect that they will dump alot of money into making this issue "go away" quickly.

 

There is no doubt that Ford will win this issue or pay Mr. Weber X dollars. The problem that we should be concernd with is whether or not there is a court injunction stopping the sale of IUP equipped cars until this resoloution is met!! Lets face it, we all know how slow the litigation system can be!!! If there is an injunction, which is what Weber's lawyers will go for, It backs Ford into a corner...If they fight it, it could take YEARS!!! So they would probably settle, and start selling IUP cars again. It all hinges on the "injunction".

 

OK, I am a patent attorney (and a former USPTO Examiner). There is a lot of wrong info floating around in this thread. No idea what sort of agreement Ford has with Delphi, but they probably have some sort of indemnification clause which gets them off the hook for damages. Doesn't solve the infringement/potential injunction issue, however.

There can be multiple overlapping patents covering the same technology. This is common, and results in cross-licensing between the patent holders in most cases. Here, however, the plaintiff is more than likely what we call a "patent extortionist." These are patent holding companies that buy up patents (or other intellectual property) strictly to assert them against deep pocket companies. In my opinion it is cheesy, but perfectly legal. They aren't looking to cross-license, since they have no marketable product. Rather, they just want some payola.

I wouldn't worry too much--this stuff happens every day. Keep in mind, before a new product like this goes into production, there has been a *very* thorough analysis of any potential patents that could be at issue. Given that this patent was even cited during the prosecution of Delphi's patent, Ford and Delphi are well aware of it and probably not too concerned.

That said, you never know which way a District Court will rule, particularly on complex matters such as patent lawsuits. Hopefully they settle with this parasite (my opinion) and we can order our full IUP's without a problem!

Oh yeah, and a patent's term is 20 years from the date of filing of the first application that priority is claimed to (excluding provisional applications). It used to be 17 years from issue, but this changed in 1995.

One more thing--this is strictly my opinion and not to be taken as legal advice by anyone, blah blah blah.

 

I'm gonna go down and change the colors on my dash right now and laugh at this joker trying to milk Ford! HAHA Glad I got mine in hand before this litigation started....It was stupid of Ford to tie the My Color to the IUP though....man, it's gonna stink for them if they have to put the IUP's on hold.....i'm not real big on the dash w/o it....