Ford’s Innovation for Self-driving Connected Electric Cars Insights from Patents

Alex G. Lee (alexglee@techipm.com)

https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/2853055

Recently, Ford stated that it will invest $4.5 billion in electric vehicles over the next five years and collaborate with

Google for developing self-driving cars. Ford also announced that it submitted around 6,000 new patent

applications this year.

Ford patent application US20150241226 illustrates the innovation regarding autonomous vehicle operations such

as maintaining a lane in a roadway, maintaining a speed, pulling to a side of a roadway, and bringing vehicle to a

stop. The autonomous vehicle obtains data concerning surrounding conditions via sensors included in the vehicle.

Sensor data can provide information concerning environmental conditions and edges of a road or lanes in a road.

Sensor data also can be used to formulate the appropriate speed for a vehicle and an appropriate path for a vehicle.

Ford innovation enables autonomous vehicle operations based on the integrated information that are obtained by

several sensors concerning a variety of phenomena. The data can be provided from the remote server or other

vehicles using vehicle-to-vehicle communications. US20150178998 illustrates the innovation regarding

autonomous vehicle operations when faults are detected.

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US20150149088 illustrates the innovation regarding autonomous vehicle collision avoidance system. The system

enables autonomous vehicle predicts objects lie in a planned path of the autonomous vehicle. Accordingly, the

system determines when a collision between the vehicle and objects is possible and alters the vehicle path to avoid

the potential collision.

Electric vehicles such as hybrid vehicles are powered by high voltage current supplied by the high voltage traction battery system having battery cells that store energy. US20150217755 illustrates the innovation regarding the electric vehicle energy management system. The system enables automatic operation in Electric Vehicle mode depending on travel range reservation. The travel range reservation represents a distance of electric-only travel the driver wishes to reserve for powering the vehicle during a portion of a commute. US20150239455 illustrates the electric vehicle energy management system that changes the operation of the electric vehicle in response to the predicted energy consumption rate that is calculated based on consumption in past energy consumption rates.

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Internet of Things (IoT) Strategic Patent Development & Monetization for New Business Creation

Goldman Sachs defines the IoT as the third wave of internet revolution: By connecting billions of devices to the

internet, the IoT can open up a host of new business opportunities and challenges. Even though the IoT is getting a

huge attention recently the concept of interconnected billions of devices is not new and has been under

development for over 10 years. Thus, there are a large number of related patented technologies that can be

exploited for developing new products/services, and thus, new business for the emerging IoT market.

TechIPm has developed an insightful new patent development and monetization methodology for the emerging IoT

market.

Many patent applications and newly issued patents can be further developed for creating new values by amending

and creating claims and generating follow-on patents to encompass emerging technology and products/services

trends, market demands, and strategic exploitation goals. TechIPm provides consulting for improving existing

patents to obtain maximum ROI. TechIPm also provides consulting on developing new patents that can lead to new

IoT product/service development exploiting the strategic patent preparation & prosecution, white space analysis,

and scenario analysis.

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A strategically packaged patent portfolio is the collection of patents that the integrated value propositions of each

patent of the portfolio target specific value propositions that are provided by emerging new products/services.

Techipm develops the strategically packaged patent portfolio in alignment with a client’s specific IoT business

interests (e.g., smart home automation). TechIPm’s methodology for developing the strategically packaged patent

portfolio is based on a deep understating of the IoT technologies, extensive experiences in patent analysis and

development, and insights into the emerging IoT market. The strategically packaged patent portfolio can be used

for monetization through patent sale, patent licensing, commercialization, spin-off, patent banking, and patent-

backed financing. TechIPm also can provide consulting on developing monetization program for exploiting the IoT

strategically packaged patent portfolio.

For detailed information, please visit

http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/best-practices-of-ip-patent-strategy-iot-internet-of-things-case-study

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