Toyota loses hybrid patent appeal case
Toyota finally seems to be out of options now that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed a lower court's ruling to stand which will award Paice LLC roughly $4.3 million in an hybrid technology lawsuit. That amount works out to $25 for every vehicle that Toyota has sold which uses the Hybrid Synergy Drive. According to the lawsuit, Toyota made use of a microprocessor which accepts torque information from the electric motor and internal combustion engine. Fortunately for Toyota, though, the ruling does not preclude the Japanese auto-giant from continuing production and sales of their super-popular hybrid vehicles, which would, of course, include the Prius. There were three patents in question, though only one of Paice's patents was ruled to be infringed upon. For the record, there are two other possible hurdles for Toyota and their hybrid technology, one from Solomon Technologies and the other from a seventy-five year old engineer in Seattle named Conrad Gardner.
[Source: The Detroit News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
john riley 6:17AM (5/13/2008)
And their stock price went UP yesterday.
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Ian 2:09PM (10/29/2008)
That makes sense. Markets hate uncertainty. The worst case would have been that they have to stop selling Priuses. They ended up with a slap on the wrist, by comparison.
Mort 7:26AM (5/13/2008)
The oil corps will probably buy up all the patents and put them out of business like they usually do.
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steven 11:32AM (5/13/2008)
@1: Which means what? That their stock dropped 6% last week and it was down under $100/share or that is it has dropped 30% in the last 10 months? According to my ticker, Friday's close was 101.31 and Monday's close was 101.54 Not sure you can pin too much on a 23 cent jump.
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