(12/18/08) - Ten years after Jacob Krippelz, Sr. first sued Ford Motor Co. for patent infringement, a Federal jury awarded the independent inventor a $23 million verdict. At issue was Krippelz' 1991 patent on an automotive lighting system used in exterior rear view mirrors.
Krippelz is the 77-year-old Chief Executive Officer of Jake's, Inc., a machining and heavy equipment component manufacturing company that he runs together with his two sons in Aurora, Illinois.