Ford is threatened with a ban on sales and production in Germany
This is a judgment with potentially very far-reaching consequences: The Munich district court prohibits the US carmaker Ford from doing business in Germany – but the plaintiff must first meet a condition.
The Munich Regional Court has imposed a nationwide sales and production ban on the US carmaker Ford. Judge Matthias Zigann’s verdict even calls for all cars to be recalled from dealerships and destroyed. This is reported by the “Wirtschaftswoche”.
The reason: Ford installs mobile radio chips in its vehicles, for which the group apparently pays no license fees. According to the report, eight patent holders for these chips have sued Ford.
The plaintiff must deposit a three-digit million sum
However, in order for a sales and production ban to actually come about, one of the plaintiffs, IP Bridge, has to deposit a security deposit of 227 million euros with the court. The judgment is appealable.
Ford announced that the reason for the lawsuit was the licensing of standard-essential patents for LTE networks. “Since we do not yet have the written reasoning behind the judgment, we do not want to comment on it at this time,” the company said in a statement.
VW and Daimler are also being sued by chip manufacturers
Ford isn’t the first automaker to be sued by chipmakers. Mercedes producer Daimler and VW have already been affected. VW found a simple solution: The company changed providers and acquired a license, reports the “Wirtschaftswoche”.
Ford is the second largest automaker in the United States. In view of global supply chain problems and a chip crisis, he is currently struggling anyway. Most recently, the numbers fell short of market expectations.
