Ford Stole Tech for Best-Selling Trucks From MIT, Professors Say
- Patent suit filed over advances in some F-150 EcoBoost engines
- Ford rejects ‘greedy inventors’ seeking cut of vehicle sales
This article is for subscribers only.
The most-popular vehicle in the U.S. -- the F-Series truck -- is among the many Ford Motor Co. products using stolen technologies to run its newest fuel-efficient engines, according to three Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors who say they invented the enhancements.
With Ford selling two trucks every minute and generating about $42 billion in revenue last year from the F-Series alone, the MIT inventors are demanding an unspecified share of the proceeds. In a lawsuit filed Jan. 30, they say their patented dual port- and direct-injection technology were added to the company’s EcoBoost engines in recent years without permission.