Comments on: "Flash of Genius" Hits Theaters Next Week; Ford Grabs onto "Oh Shit! Handle"

By: 1429white

1429white — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:22:40 +0000

There is one basic error in the movie. Ford did not steal Kearns’ invention. Ford would have had an intermittent windshield wiper even if Kearns had never visited Ford. There were many intermittent wiper systems prior to Kearns’ invention. Ford was in the process of developing its own wiper system prior to Kearns visit to Ford. Kearns had a very skilled patent attornery who was able to obtain very broad patent claims that exceeded Kearns’ actual contribution based upon information that Kearns relayed back to his attorney regarding Ford’s work. Nevertheless, the jury in the Ford v. Kearns trial found that the Kearns’ patents were infringed. It award Kearns $5 million which was increase by $5 million for the interest on the damages award. The jury found that Ford was not a willful infringer; that is, Ford did not steal Kearns’ invention.

Interestingly, Kearns attempted to be his own attorney (after hiring and firing 3 different law firm that represented him in suits against Ford and Chrysler) in suits against GM and foreign auto makers. As a results, he lost those subsequent cases.

By: Scotter

Scotter — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:25:20 +0000

I totally agree with you that there will probably never be a good time to tell this story. However, I don’t think it’s a mindset issue as much as it’s an issue about all of the business that is built upon the auto industry. It’s one of the reasons I mentioned not only the manufacturing of cars, but the engineering firms and advertising firms and credit firms that rely mostly on the business of the auto industry.

I sincerely hope that Granholm’s plan to make Michigan a green manufacturing hub works, but there will be stiff competition from other states, and it’s likely that the boost would not sufficiently fill the auto industry gap.

By: winjer

winjer — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:55:02 +0000

I don’t think there will ever be a good time to tell this story. Ford, especially, has shown itself to be reluctant to manufacture cars that are less wasteful and times are just going to get tougher.

And let’s not kid ourselves that any other industry could possibly replace the automobile industry if it were to go down.

This is something that bothers me about people’s mindset in Michigan. No one can think beyond the auto industry or life without cars. How much worse does it have to get for people to wake up?