Harvey, Stanford R. Ovshinsky, ECD President and CEO invented the NiMH battery. His company was ECD an called it the Ovonic Battery. He sold the patent to General Motors to be used in the EV-1. After GM decided to get out of the Electric Car business they sold the patent to Chevron/Texaco who renamed the company Cobasys. Initially ECD sold licenses to several companies one of which was Panasonic which made the batteries for the Toyota RAV4-EV. It was of course Chevron/Texaco who sued Toyota and Panasonic for Patent rights infringement because they did not want another fuel competing with Oil. Charles W. and Al Lococo also know the story better than I and can give you any other details including the other company who can make the large format NiMH batteries for EV's. Something tells me it is Gold Peak. According to SEC filings, ECD Ovonics and Cobasys hold 125 US patents related to NiMH battery technology. 13 of the patents, considered particularly important, are due to expire by 2014. It is a little more complicated than that but that is the basic idea. TED
----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:00 PM Subject: Re: [FLEAA] Fw: Article #1 Ted: Please clarify my understanding of what happened with Toyota and Panasonic. I have always been under the impression that Chevron/Texaco bought the patent rights to the NMH batteries; that to this day they won't release them to EV manufacturers. Is this accurate? Now you're saying that the original owner of the patent, who sold his patent to Chevron/Texaco, sued Toyota and Panasonic for patent infringement. Maybe I'm missing something, but how could the original patent holder sue anybody if he already sold the patent to Chevron/Texaco? I've talked to other members and they are as confused as I apparently am. I'm sorry to ask you for clarification, but, believe me, I'm not alone. Thank you, in advance, for having to take time to explain this to us. Harvey Bennett, FLEAA Public Relations Committee [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Florida EAA mailing list [email protected] http://www.floridaeaa.org
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