In honor of National Check Your Wipers Day Nov. 16, we’re looking at the lawsuit Ford Motor Co. lost to the inventor of intermittent windshield wipers.
Robert Kearns invented what he called “blinking” wipers in his basement after he lost sight in one eye due to a champagne cork incident on his wedding day. Blinking wipers act somewhat like a human eye, moving every few seconds instead of continuously as wipers had previously done.
In 1963, he showed Ford a new car in which he had installed his wipers. Then he showed his technology to Chrysler and General Motors. Kearns had a doctorate in mechanical engineering and had wanted to be a supplier to the automakers.
They all declined his proposal to license his invention.
Then in 1969 Ford introduced intermittent wipers in its new Mercury line. Kearns sued Ford, acting as his own lawyer, in 1978 (Kearns v. Ford Motor Co., 203, U.S.P.Q. 884, 888).
In 1990, after a 12-year legal battle, a federal jury ruled that Ford had infringed on Kearns’ 1964 patent.
He had about 35 patents, including for power steering pumps, over which Ford lost a patent infringement suit against him in 1981.
“It takes a lot of tenacity and money to fight patent infringement,” said William G. Abbot, patent expert with Brooks & Cushman of Southfield, Mich. “A big company can make it expensive real quick.”
Kearns said he pursued the suit with hopes to change patent laws to give courts the power to extend patents if inventors were involved in lengthy lawsuits.
He also sued Chrysler, Porsche, Volkswagen, Ferrari, Volvo, Alfa Romeo, Lotus, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Rolls Royce Motors, Saab, Toyota, General Motors and Mercedes-Benz manufacturers.
