As we reported a few weeks ago, Toyota has been embroiled in a patent dispute with Paice LLC concerning its hybrid vehicle technology that threatened to halt hybrid imports in the United States. As it turns out, after six years of litigation, Toyota has finally reached a settlement in the case. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Paice founder Alex Severinsky, who had claimed that Toyota infringed on his 1994 patent, was pleased with the result.
“Finally people understand the merits of what I invented and give it the proper value,” Severinsky said. “Toyota is the leading technology company and finally appreciates the value of the invention.”
Toyota had insisted that, while its technology was similar to Paice patent, its hyrib vehicles were the result of its own independent research. Evidently, both parties were in agreement.
“The parties agree that, although certain Toyota vehicles have been found to be equivalent to a Paice patent, Toyota invented, designed and developed the Prius and Toyota’s hybrid technology independent of any inventions of Dr. Severinsky and Paice as part of Toyota’s long history of innovation,” both companies said in separate statements.
With this issue out of the way, Toyota can now concentrate on its latest round of subpeonas. This time, a federal grand jury in New York is investigating whether or not Toyota notified the NHTSA in a timely fashion about faulty steering rods.
For Toyota, a bad year just keeps getting worse.
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Morgan O’Rourke is editor in chief of Risk Management magazine, where he has worked since 2002. He graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, with a degree in communications and lives on Long Island, where he was born and raised.
