[ad_1]
Jurors deliberated for two days before finding Ford guilty Wednesday after a 15-day trial.
Austin, Texas-based Versata said it licensed its automotive software to Ford from 1998 to 2015, helping the automaker’s engineers and marketing agents collaborate and design vehicles with “seamless real-time updates” worldwide.
He said the Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford began copying its software after it grew tired of paying millions of dollars in annual licensing fees and rejected a “definitive” offer in 2014 to license Versata’s core software for $17 million a year.
More than $82.2 million of the jury award was for breach of contract, with the remaining $22.4 million for trade secret misappropriation.
“While we respect the jury’s decision, we believe the facts and law do not support this result,” Ford said in a statement. “Ford will appeal the verdict.”
Versata attorney Dan Webb, a partner at Winston & Strawn, said the jury awarded about 85% of the company’s demands after Ford asserted what he called a “bogus” defense that it owned Versata’s trade secrets.
“It was a very favorable decision and we’re very pleased,” Webb said in an interview Thursday.
The lawsuit began in April 2015 when Ford sought a ruling that it did not infringe on the Versata’s intellectual property.
The case is Versata Software Inc et al v Ford Motor Co, US District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, No. 15-10628.
[ad_2]
Source link
