Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com A federal jury in Michigan found Ford Motor Company guilty of breach of contract and misuse of trade secrets, ruling Wednesday that Ford should pay Texas-based Versata Software $104.65 million after three weeks of trial testimony.

"While we respect the jury's decision, we believe the facts and law do not support this outcome," Ford spokeswoman Catherine Haggert said. Ford will appeal the ruling. "

CTOnews.com understands that at issue is a 2004 contract between the two companies involving software developed by Versata to manage how car parts are configured during assembly. The jury found Ford misused classified information to reverse engineer Versata's software for its own commercial use and to use the software without a license.

According to the jury verdict, the jury awarded Ford $82.26 million for breach of contract and $22.39 million for misuse of trade secrets.

Ford hired Versata in the late 1990s to develop software designed to solve problems that led to costly recalls, according to Dan Webb, Versata's attorney. The two companies struck a 15-year contract in 2004 for Ford to use the software, but Ford terminated the agreement in 2014, saying they had developed their own software. Webb told the jury Versata later discovered Ford had "stabbed us in the back" by secretly developing software that contained Versata's trade secrets.

Hargett said the ruling had no impact on Ford's current products or activities, adding that "the software hasn't been used since 2014, it's back-end enterprise software, and it was last used nearly a decade ago to support vehicle configuration and design and material forecasting." It has never been used in a vehicle. "

Webb said, however, that what Ford said was simply not true and that the software was still in use today, which is why jurors imposed penalties on Ford.

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