Krippelz v. Ford Motor Company, 2009 WL 3852466 (N.D.IL).
On November 18, 2009, Ford Motor was ordered to pay $55.7 million to an inventor (Jake Krippelz). Back in December 2008, a Federal jury awarded the inventor $23 million in a patent infringement lawsuit against Ford Motor. The inventor’s patent covered an automotive lighting system used in exterior rear view mirrors and was issued in 1991 (U.S. Patent No. 5,017,903).
After a 10 year lawsuit, Ford Motor was found to have willfully infringed the ‘903 patent and the Court awarded double-damages to the inventor for the willfully infringing sales (an additional $21 Million for the inventor).
In the end, the inventor was awarded $55,703,357 ($23,000,000 in damages, $21,017,400 in enhanced damages for willful infringement and $11,685,957 in prejudgment interest). The Court also granted the inventor his costs for the litigation which will be determined later.
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