AUTOMOBILES : Supreme Court Lets Stand Car Invention Case Award

The Supreme Court is letting inventor Robert Kearns collect about $21 million from Chrysler in a dispute over his design for intermittent windshield wipers. But don’t assume Kearns is thrilled.

“The booby prize is $21 million,” he said Monday, complaining because the court denied his separate bid to bar Chrysler from continuing to use his design.

Kearns contended that he would prefer to have the chance to manufacture the wipers himself and create thousands of jobs, rather than receive the millions awarded by a Michigan jury.

The inventor, who is acting as his own lawyer, said Chrysler has earned $468 million from unauthorized use of his design.

Chrysler, in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn the award, had argued that it was improperly barred from introducing evidence of other previously existing intermittent wiper systems.

“We’re disappointed with the outcome,” said Chrysler spokeswoman Rita McKay. “We disagree with the jury and the Court of Appeals decision.”

Kearns, of Queenstown, Md., received several patents for his design in 1967. He shopped it around to various auto makers but never reached a licensing deal.

Virtually all cars sold in the United States now have intermittent wipers as standard or optional equipment.

Kearns filed patent-infringement lawsuits against Ford in 1978 and Chrysler in 1982. He has filed similar lawsuits against other auto manufacturers.

The Ford case went to trial first. A jury decided that Kearns’ patents were valid and enforceable, and ordered Ford to pay $5.2 million plus interest. Ford later agreed to pay $10.2 million and to drop all appeals.

Chrysler officials had promised to rely on the Ford jury’s decision on whether the patents were valid and enforceable.

But during the trial on Kearns’ lawsuit against it, Chrysler unsuccessfully sought to introduce evidence of previous intermittent wiper designs. Chrysler said the evidence was needed to clarify issues, but the judge called it a “back door” attack on the validity of the patents.

Kearns won an $18.7-million judgment, which he said has risen to about $21 million with interest. Chrysler appealed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the award.

On Monday, the Supreme Court made no comment as it refused to disturb the lower court ruling.

But Kearns said that because his 17-year patents expired long ago, the court’s refusal to bar Chrysler from using his design means he lost his chance to control the use of his invention.

“How can you have it exclusively if it’s on every car in the Western world?” he said.

“This is my 32nd year of legal problems,” Kearns said. “The patent system is a fraud, pure and simple.”