Ford Beats MIT’s Bid to Halt Validity Reviews on Ethanol Patents

Ford Motor Co.’s challenges to the validity of two patents the Massachusetts Institute of Technology exclusively licenses to Ethanol Boosting Systems LLC for technologies used in fuel-efficient engines survived the partners’ second attempt to kill an administrative tribunal’s validity reviews.

MIT and EBS—co-founded by three MIT researchers who are the named inventors on the patents—sued Ford in May 2020 alleging the automaker used a fuel management system described in a family of patents including US Patent Nos. 10,619,580 and 10,781,760. Bloomberg Law estimates both will expire in November 2024.

“Under the particular circumstances of this case,” the petition ...