Inventor Wins Patent Suit Against Ford : Automotive: Verdict on intermittent windshield wipers could affect similar actions against 27 other companies.

Ford Motor Co. infringed on a former professor’s patent for the intermittent windshield wiper used on its cars, a jury ruled in a potentially far-reaching and lucrative case for the inventor.

The verdict Monday could affect similar lawsuits by Robert W. Kearns against General Motors Corp., Chrysler Corp., Daimler-Benz, Honda, Toyota, Nissan and 21 other companies. The Ford case was the first to go to trial.

The federal jury will reconvene Feb. 26 to establish how much Ford must pay Kearns.

However, U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn ruled earlier that Kearns failed to prove he could have made and marketed the system on his own and thus can claim only a royalty on each wiper, instead of Ford’s profit.

Ford had contended that the patent was invalid because the windshield system contained no new concepts.

But Kearns argued that a new combination of parts made his invention unique. The invention allows the driver to set the interval at which the wiper sweeps the window.

Kearns, a former professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who now lives in Gaithersburg, Md., obtained the patents between 1967 and 1974.

Kearns claimed in his lawsuit that he installed a set of his wipers on a 1962 Ford and took it to the auto maker.

Kearns “made numerous disclosures of confidential engineering test designs” to Ford engineers, the lawsuit claimed. Because they repeatedly asked him to discuss designs, the lawsuit said, Kearns was led to believe Ford would buy his system.

Kearns, his attorneys and Ford all said they were forbidden by the judge to talk about the 12-year-old case.