Ford Sued over Sync by Airbiquity Founders

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A Washington State tech firm has sued Ford for patent infringement regarding Sync radios.

The suit, announced July 1, also alleges that Ford’s active park assist, blind spot detection and other technologies violated patents owned by Eagle Harbor Holdings whose chairman and CTO founded Airbiquity (whose technology is found in OnStar).

Ford sued over Sync “Our representatives began meeting with Ford in 2002 to discuss and disclose our patented automotive systems technology… These meetings continued until 2008, when Ford stopped communications with us. In early 2009 we informed Ford that its automotive audio systems infringed on our patents,” said
Jeffrey Harmes, counsel for Eagle Harbor Holdings.

It’s interesting that when Ford announced the Sync, Airbiquity was named as one of its partners on the Sync along with Microsoft, Inrix, TeleNav, TellMe and deCarta.

Eagle again notified Ford in March 2010 that the Sync and other technologies infringed on patents, he said. The patents include Bluetooth and audio technology said The Seattle Times.

Eagle Harbor’s chairman is Dan Preston, who is also the inventor of most of the patents cited in the suit. His son, Joe Preston is Eagle’s CTO. Together, they were co-founders of Airbiquity.

Ford has not yet responded to our inquiry seeking a comment.

Source: Eagle Harbor Holdings and The Seattle Times

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