Ford Owes $105 Million in Software Trade Secrets Case, Jury Says

Ford Motor Co. breached a contract and stole trade secrets from Versata Software Inc. and should pay $105 million, a federal jury in Detroit decided.

Versata terminated Ford’s license to the vehicle software program it had developed for Ford, leading to litigation that began in 2015.

The automaker escaped copyright claims in 2019 because Versata failed to point to the specific copyright-protectable aspects of the software that were copied. But the trade secrets and breach of contract claims regarding what Versata described as critical to Ford’s global information technology structure went to trial.

The jury also rejected Ford’s breach of ...