On Wednesday, August 29, TMC Fuel Injection System LLC filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia against Ford Motor Company, according to a report from Automotive News.
The Pennsylvania-based company is accusing Ford for infringing on one of its 2008 patents covering a fuel-injection system. TMC claims that Ford started selling vehicles powered by an EcoBoost engine that used the system after telling engineer Shou L. Hou, the inventor, that it had no interest in the technology.
The complaint also alleges that Ford’s discussions with Hou began in December 2004; more than two years after TMC had filed an application for the technology, which increases performance while at the same time reducing fuel consumption by up to 35 percent, to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
TMC describes Ford’s actions as “willful and deliberate” infringement” and is seeking a halt to any infringement, as well as compensatory and triple damages because it has been “irreparably harmed”.
Ford spokesman Mike Levine said that he couldn’t comment on the issue because he wasn’t aware of TMC’s lawsuit.
The F-Series pickup truck is the best-selling vehicle in the US with 350,455 deliveries in the first seven months of the year, 44 percent more than the second-placed Toyota Camry and more than double (57 percent) more its Chevrolet Silverado rival.
Ford’s own data show that the EcoBoost-equipped F-150 is very popular accounting for 42 percent of the F-Series sales in July.
By Andrew Tsaousis
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