The inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper has won another $11.3 million in his 25-year crusade against the auto industry.
But Robert Kearns was still not happy.Chrysler Corp. must pay him $11.3 million for illegally using his patents in designing the windshield wipers that went into 12.6 million vehicles sold between 1977 and 1988, a federal grand jury in Detroit decided Thursday after seven days of deliberation.
But the jury of four women and three men said Chrysler did not willfully infringe, meaning U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn cannot triple Kearns' award.
Just as he did after winning a $10.2 million award from Ford Motor Co. in November, 1990, Kearns insisted he's not in it for the money but to win more time on his patents.
"I plan to go to the appellate court on the matter that time is the important thing," said Kearns, whose last patent for the wiper system expired four years ago. "My goal all along was to be a supplier to the automotive industry. If I don't win the time, then the whole patent system is based on fraud."
"Of course we're going to appeal," Chrysler spokesman Tom Houston said. "We believe the amount of the verdict is unreasonable and far exceeds any possible value of the Kearns patents. Chrysler developed and patented its own intermittent windshield wiper system that we believe did not infringe on Dr. Kearns' patents."
The damages break down to 90 cents per car, far less than the $29.19 per car Kearns sought, but 18 times the nickel per car Chrysler attorneys called reasonable. Ford wound up paying Kearns slightly more than 50 cents for each of 20.2 million cars it sold with intermittent windshield wipers.
Kearns, acting as his own attorney, said he planned to sue General Motors Corp. on the windshield wiper issue, possibly this fall, and has three other cases pending. They are against Volkswagen and Audi, Daimler-Benz and Porsche. He also had another suit against 16 other automakers.