A part already on every car
Wipers that pause in light rain
Payments from Ford and Chrysler after years in court
Cars already had windshield wipers. In a drizzle they smeared the glass, because they could not take a break. Robert Kearns made them pause, the way a blinking eye does.
The everyday problem
The car industry had wiper motors, switches, and rain. Kearns added timing. Drivers now expect that pause, and it feels obvious. It was still new enough to patent when he filed.
The simple change
- He patented the intermittent wiper.
- Carmakers later used the same idea on production cars.
- He enforced the patents. A patent is a right you can ask a court to honor.
What happened
Ford settled with Kearns for $10.2 million in 1990. After a jury found that Chrysler infringed his patents, the court awarded him about $18.7 million, and in 1995 the Supreme Court declined to hear Chrysler's appeal. The fight took more than 30 years, and about $11 million of the Chrysler money was owed to lawyers and others.
What you can take from this
An improvement to something huge companies already sell can be the valuable patent. The idea does not have to be a machine nobody has imagined.
A public story, told here as an example. It is not a client of this practice, and I had no part in it. Results like this are rare. Most patents never earn money, and nothing here is a promise that your idea will be patented or will make money.