Why were Toyota, Honda, and GM sued by Intellectual Ventures? Connected cars and patent litigation
- Introduction
On June 26, 2018, Akio Toyoda, President of Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota), stated the following at “THE CONNECTED DAY” [i]: The “automotive industry is currently facing an era of major transformation said to occur only once every 100 years. It is said that within as few as 20 years since the appearance of the Model T (Ford), almost all horses were replaced by automobiles.
“Now, 100 years later, we are facing new competitors, technology companies which have entirely different views from the automotive industry. We are entering a phase in which the future of automobiles could change drastically. In order to survive this era of major transformation, said to occur only once every 100 years, I have decided to redesign Toyota from a company that makes automobiles into a mobility company.”
This paradigm shift was named CASE by Chairman of Daimler (at the time), Dieter Zetsche, at a press conference of the Paris Motor Show 2016 in September 2016 [ii]. CASE stands for Connected, Autonomous, Shared & Services and Electric.
In the midst of these major transformation in the automotive industry, Intellectual Ventures (IV) filed patent litigations against Toyota et al, Honda Motor Co, Ltd (Honda) et al, and General Motors Company (GM) et al in the United States (US) in 2021 (the litigations). The litigations were related to the C (Connected) of CASE.
What kind of company is IV? Why did IV file the patent litigations against Toyota and others? Where is the conflict between IV and Toyota and others? Will such patent litigations related to connected cars increase in the future?
- What is a connected car?
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Japan, a connected car is a car that functions as an ICT terminal, which is expected to create new value by obtaining various data such as vehicle status and surrounding road conditions from sensors and then collect and analyse such data via a network.
At “THE CONNECTED DAY”, Akio Toyoda said that incorporating connected technology into the Crown and Corolla models, both of which are special to Toyota, means that Toyota is pursuing in earnest the widespread use of connected cars. Toyota also offers a connected service called T-Connect [iii]including the “Remote Connect (app),” which allows users to initiate the car's climate control settings via a smartphone app before getting inside, making it more comfortable and safer to start driving.
“In-car Wi-Fi,” turns a vehicle into a Wi-Fi hotspot and allows users to use their smartphones while driving to search for information or to show videos to children sitting in the backseat with a tablet.
Honda also offers services using connected technology, called Honda CONNECT [iv].
- IV vs Toyota, Honda and GM, US patent litigation
Overview
On October 19, 2021, IV filed lawsuits against Toyota et al and Honda et al in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, accusing both of infringing 11 patents, and against GM et al in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, claiming infringement of 12 patents. On April 4, 2022, IV withdrew The Eastern District of Texas litigation against Honda et al and filed a new litigation in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The purpose of this withdrawal and the filing of a new litigation appears to have been to address a venue issue [v].
IV’s patent rights
IV's patent rights relate to wireless network systems, mobile wireless hotspot systems, etc. According to the complaint, these patent rights are not asserted as standard-essential patents (SEPs). However, Florian Mueller states in FOSS PATENTS, a well-known blog concerning software patents, that three of patent rights have been declared essential patents to the LTE standard, according to IPlytics [vi].
Accused infringing products
IV alleges that the wireless network system incorporated in Toyota's Prius and Lexus, as well as in Honda's Odyssey and Accord, etc, infringe IV's patent rights. For example, in its complaint against Toyota et al, IV pasted the photograph below to allege that Toyota automobiles are equipped with mobile wireless hot-spot systems as claimed in IV's US patent 7382771.
