Omnitek Partners LLC and JG Technologies LLC were not the only plaintiffs to recently add to the marked jump in litigation in the Automotive market sector seen in 2020 and recently reported by RPX. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (as patent owner) and Ethanol Boosting Systems, LLC (EBS) (as exclusive licensee) filed another suit against Ford (1:20-cv-00706) over two fuel management system patents new to litigation. The complaint follows the plaintiffs' appeal of a claim construction order handed down in January 2020 by District of Delaware Judge Colm F. Connolly that brought the prior suit between these parties to an end, through a stipulated judgment of noninfringement.
Judge Connolly construed multiple terms from the four patents-in-suit (8,069,839; 9,255,519; 9,810,166; 10,138,826) according to a definition of "fuel"—a "fuel that contains an anti-knock agent that is not gasoline, and that is different from the fuel used for port injection/in the second fueling system"—that prompted a stipulation between the plaintiffs and Ford to a final, appealable judgment of noninfringement. MIT and EBS filed their appeal of the judgment, based on the court's constructions, in mid-February.
Ford also filed eight petitions for inter partes review (IPR), two against each of the four prior patents-in-suit. The PTAB refused to institute trial in response to five of those petitions; however, trials are underway in response to three others: IPR2019-01401 as to the '519 patent; IPR2019-01399 as to the '166 patent; and IPR2019-01402, the '826 patent. The patents asserted in the new complaint against Ford (9,708,965; 10,619,580) belong to the same family as the prior four, a family that has now grown to include 29 members with issue dates ranging from June 2007 through April 2020. The '965 patent is dated in July 2017, and the '580 patent is the most recent to issue, in April 2020.
EBS was formed in Delaware in March 2005. The plaintiffs identify the three named inventors, Leslie Bromberg, Daniel R. Cohn, and John B. Heywood, as EBS's cofounders, as well as accomplished MIT researchers. For example, the plaintiffs plead that Heywood "literally wrote the book on internal combustion engines", publishing a textbook that has allegedly sold over 130K copies and "is widely considered a field-defining publication". The plaintiffs have pleaded that Ford had notice "since at least October 2014 of a number of MIT and EBS patents and pending applications covering the use of dual port and direct injection". The complaint then details alleged emails exchanged and in-person and telephonic meetings attended between representatives of Ford and the three named inventors through the end of 2015.
RPX reported on a threefold bump in patent infringement suits in the Automotive market sector in the first few months of 2020 over the same period last year. With the JG Technologies suits, as well as others, that trend appears to have continued through May.
In this second complaint, MIT and EBS target Ford's provision of certain engines and fuel management systems, including its 2.7L EcoBoost, 3.5L EcoBoost, High Output 3.5L EcoBoost, 3.3L Ti-VCT, and 5.0L Ti-VCT V8 engines and fuel management systems. The case has also been assigned to Judge Connolly. 5/27, District of Delaware.
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