U.S. trade officials to probe Toyota patent claim

Wednesday 07th October, 03:52 AM JST

NEW YORK —

U.S. trade officials said they will launch an investigation into whether Toyota Motor Corp violated patents held by a U.S. hybrid technology company.

The company, Bonita Springs, Florida-based Paice LLC, claims that popular Toyota hybrids like the third-generation Prius and the Lexus HS250h contain technology that violate its patents related to the propulsion of gas-electric vehicles.

Paice is seeking to bar the import of the vehicles into the U.S. The U.S. International Trade Commission, which investigates claims of trade violations, voted to launch the probe on Monday.

After the ITC decides to begin an investigation, a judge is named usually within 45 days and hearings are held, an ITC spokeswoman said. If the ITC sides with Paice, the trade body could issue penalties including a possible ban on the hybrids’ import.

A spokesman for the Japanese automaker said the company’s position remains unchanged from last month, when it issued a statement saying it “has many patents on the hybrid technology and believes that it has strong defenses against all of Paice’s claims and that it will prevail in the ITC proceeding.”

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12 Comments

societymike at 07:48 AM JST - 7th October

Nice try, but for one, it's a US patent issue and a foreign product, so isn't there a "jurisdiction" issue here? Furthermore, at this day and age, it's a little bit difficult to maintain such a claim on basic technology that is required for common products, even harder to say you "thought of it first" when it's such a basic concept. (and for more info look into the part that is claimed to be in questions, it's very basic)
namabiru4me at 08:17 AM JST - 7th October

Paice has already been successful in patent disputes with Toyota in the past. It seems that the patent is valid and file for in the mid-90s.

The jurisdiction here is for imports into the US. However, Paice may have international patent filings as well. If so, other markets would likely follow the ITC's decision and ban imports too.
timorborder at 10:50 AM JST - 7th October

With the word going "eco" crazy, there are not going to be any bans on imports into the US. Rather, some sort of royalty agreement will be worked out between the parties if this patent issue actually holds water.
Yelnats at 11:07 AM JST - 7th October

Pay off time.
gogogo at 11:49 AM JST - 7th October

Patenting is a business of sueing
Tatanka at 12:56 PM JST - 7th October

Paice LLC is a patent troll. They don't have the money to launch an ITC legal challenge to the Toyota patents.
sharky1 at 09:25 PM JST - 7th October

It would be less costly for Toyota to try and negotiate a settlement rather than going through a potential damaging probe.
PepinGalarga at 09:43 PM JST - 7th October

if a patent was filed in the US, most likely it was also filed in Japan. How interesting it would be to see how the IP rights of Paice would be protected in Japan, or if they would be steamrolled.
Badsey at 05:02 AM JST - 8th October

This is a USPTO case and the patent judge will rule on it. They believe they are exercising their right "to exclude others" from their intellectual property. That is the law and that is what a patent provides. Nothing more -Nothing less.
rgetty at 10:13 PM JST - 8th October

Its about time! the Japanese have been stealing patents for years and im glad to see we are finally taking a stand. The US companies spend over 1 billion many years ago developing hybrid technology, then the Japanese started to get nervous and started making them. The Americans didn't put it to use because of the same reason as other, it was to costly, but when you are a Japanese company and have access to free money you dont really care about that, its all about market share. Time to pay up Toyota!
Klein2 at 12:56 AM JST - 10th October

Toyota was locked out of a consortium of US companies developing hybrid technology during the Clinton years. They have been basically going it alone since then. I have old textbooks and magazines from the 1970s and 1980s showing what Japanese carmakers were doing with hybrids then. To say that the Japanese were leading the pack is a gross understatement. Hybrid, hmmm...well, let's just say it is pre-Doraemon technology.

Gee, I wish Toyota had shown the drive, ingenuity, and ambition of GM or what is it? Paice? The world would be such better place.
bdiego at 07:22 AM JST - 10th October

Patents are international by the Berne Convention which all these countries including Japan have signed. Russia and China are notable exceptions. I don't have any comment as far as the merits of this case, just pointing that out. Personally, the patent system is broken and constantly abused.