Toyota Prius getting investigated.

[Christ]

In support of my above comment, I invite you to research the Toyota Highlander EV hybrid and it's Ni-MH battery pack.

The company that bought the patent for the Ni-MH batteries that were in use, as I understand it, will not allow battery sizes to be sold that are sufficient to power a vehicle, for whatever reason. Toyota, as a result, was forced to stop production of the Ni-MH battery pack in the Highlander EV, and since Ni-MH was the only viable choice for them at the time, subsequently canceled the Highlander EV altogether.

[Bicycle Bob]

The Patent System's ability to reward individual inventors has been overwhelmed by the scale of industry, and the wiles of lawyers. A systems engineer would allow inventors to file ideas for consideration by other researchers, and pay them if the idea was picked up. The royalties would come from taxes on established innovations and sunset industries that are being phased out for the greater good. It might even be good business for the government to provide free facilities and materials to anyone trying to invent something with peer review access, rather than trying to pick winners through supporting a large class of professional presenters and grant signers.

[Christ]

Like the submission steps for Technical Papers submitted to SAE and similar organizations? It's free to submit, and there's a peer review process that you go through.

Of course, it still has to be filed and presented according to their standards, but it's not as bad as patent filing. (According to US law, patents can be had without filing. Intellectual property can be claimed against any invention without proof of a patent, as long as it can be proven that said property was part of an intellectual invention or description made by the claimant, before said property was in use, thought of, or patented by the defendant.) This would constitute a patent for the person who could prove intellectual property, but does not require filing or fee payment.

[Big Dave]

I wish him luck.

Consider the case of Selden v. Ford.

[Jammer]

It might be better for the consumer if the Government concludes their patent is in violation and then the rest of the car companies could hope on the Hybrid train real fast. But I do not wish anything unfair on any company. I only want whatever the law states to be legal to be enforced and nobody allowed to cheat.