Jury orders Ford to pay software program firm $105 million in commerce secrets and techniques case

NEW YORK – A federal jury in Detroit ordered Ford Motor Co to pay Versata Software program Inc $104.6 million in damages for breaching a 2004 licensing contract and misappropriating commerce secrets and techniques.

Jurors deliberated over two days earlier than holding Ford liable on Wednesday, following a 15-day trial.

Versata, based mostly in Austin, Texas, mentioned it licensed its automotive software program to Ford from 1998 to 2015, serving to the automaker’s engineers and advertising and marketing brokers collaborate on and design automobiles with “seamless actual time updates” worldwide.

It mentioned Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford started copying its software program after rising weary of paying thousands and thousands of {dollars} in annual licensing charges, and in 2014 rejected a “closing” supply to license Versata’s main software program for $17 million a yr.

Greater than $82.2 million of the jury award was for breach of contract, with the remaining $22.4 million for commerce secret misappropriation. Versata’s damages professional testified that the corporate suffered $59.9 million in commerce secret damages.

“Whereas we respect the jury’s resolution, we consider the details and the regulation don’t help this consequence,” Ford mentioned in an announcement on Wednesday. “Ford will enchantment the decision.”

Legal professionals for Versata didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

The litigation started in April 2015, when Ford sought a court docket order that it didn’t infringe Versata’s mental property.

The case is Versata Software program Inc et al v Ford Motor Co, U.S. District Courtroom, Jap District of Michigan, No. 15-10628.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Extra reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; Enhancing by Bernadette Baum)