Honeywell Aerospace is suing Rivian over seven patented technologies it says the company is using without permission. Lucid got hit with its own lawsuit the same day.
Bloomberg Law reported that the patents in the Rivian case cover safety monitoring, autonomous navigation, traffic display systems, sensor fusion, laser-based navigation, hazard detection, and software licensing management. Most of that tech started out in aviation, but Honeywell’s arguing its IP reaches ground vehicles too.
It wants damages, an injunction, attorneys’ fees, enhanced damages for willful infringement, and a jury trial. The Rivian complaint was filed in federal court in Arizona. The Lucid complaint went to the Eastern District of Texas, a venue patent holders have loved for years.
Both suits dropped on September 18, less than three months after Honeywell Aerospace spun off from Honeywell International as its own public company, which makes this feel like a new business looking at a huge patent portfolio and deciding it’s time to collect.
I’ll keep an eye on both cases and share updates with you all as they move forward.
Hoo boy, you know when they file in West Texas they don’t have a case.
Why didn’t they go after tesla as well?
Probably because tsla uses vision only for their fsd.
More likely because Tesla has a clause in their own free IP licensing policy that says that their IP is free to use by any company unless they sure Tesla for patent infringement. Honeywell is likely inviting on some of Teslas “free” patents, and if they sued t would immediately be in breach.
Patents are intended to protect the inventor from blatant copying. All the tech is encrypted in software and it is impossible to copy. Additionally the application is very different. It feels like Honeywell is operating in bad faith and looking for settlement money. All this legal back and forth shows how broken our patent office is as well as the legal system. The lawyers win at the expense of the rest of us….Funny how the short interest always seems to spike before these ridiculous lawsuits come out. Be careful shorts 8 days to cover is in the danger zone!
True, and especially sad when applied to safety patents. People die because of these kinds of lawsuits. Whatever the downsides is the patent system are, near the top of the fact that safety and security patents are treated just like any other parent without consideration of the impact on society of their broad use.
I don’t like the fact that companies can go ‘Judge Shopping”. You should be required to file your case in the Fed Court where you reside or the Fed Court where your defendant resides.
This is especially true for Lucid and the Eastern District of Texas.
Businesses purposely put offices in Eastern District of Texas, esp the big tech patent holders. It was the battleground for Apple vs Google for years.
Kinda like Incorporating in Delaware as a business completely in New York or California.