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http://autos.sympatico.ca/auto-news/...el-saving-tech
A Pennsylvania company is filing a lawsuit against Ford because the gas-saving fuel injection tech used in the automaker's F-150 trucks allegedly infringes on a 2008 patent.
The company, TMC Fuel Injection System LLC, says in 2008, Ford told them they weren't interested in their patented system, then went and used it on their vehicles the very next model year.
They're hoping to bar Ford from further infringing on the patent and to collect an unspecified amount of compensatory damages, reports Automotive News.
Ford met with Shou L. Hou, TMC engineer and inventor of the fuel injection system, in December 2004, more than two years after they filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the company says.
In 2008, Ford said they were no longer interested in the technology; in 2009, they introduced their EcoBoost engine line, which employs the fuel injection system in question, TMC says. EcoBoost became an option on F-series trucks last year.
Ford did not immediately offer a reply since they said they were unaware of the complaint.
TMC's fuel injection system cuts down on wasted fuel and can improve fuel efficiency as much as 35 percent, and delivers a power boost under accleration, the company wrote into the lawsuit papers.
Ford's F-series trucks are the best-selling vehicles in North America; trucks with EcoBoost accounted for 42 percent of the line's sales in July 2012, the automaker said.