Um, actually, that is Ford's postion. Has been since 1924, when they sued for infringement of patents on several carmakers. Yes, and how far did that get him? As for the IC engine, I was meaning used in a viable car - the engine was not his idea and his cars were not the first vehicles that they were used in so technically you're right, but the vehicles that used an IC engine before him were not reall cars as such - at least they were clearly different from what he made. And, lastly, it assumes that they aren't simply waiting for it to go gold. Since Only EFA can pursue it, and the choice of when to do is strictly theirs, it is not unreasonable to think that they are letting them dig a grave. I think you may be stretching it a bit here - is this possible? Yes, it's also possible that EFA has hired a hit-man to eliminate the DAZ staff but I think we would all agree that's unlikely. While it is possible that they are waiting, it would be a very unusual action for a company to wait so long and given the public statements they have made, it would be likely that a court would rule against them now whereas it would have been much more likely to rule for them at the start. You see, if there is evidence that you have 'agreed' to something [not a legal contract - that's only one way to agree - to have knowledge of something and to not take action but to actually continue to deal with the person and make public statements that indicate you are on friendly terms may well be viewed by a judge to be implisite acceptance even though there is no explisite staement] So yes, your theoretical version could be the case, but my suggestion is far more likely to be correct. The only ones who know for sure of course are the people running EFA and their lawyers. Please don't put words in my mouth. I'm sorry, which words did I put in your mouth? I know which ones found themself stuffed into my mouth but I honestly don't recall putting any into your mouth unless you mean the fact that I pointed out the "ripped off" is another way to say "stole" in which case I wasn't putting any words anywhere - I didn't create the definition, I merely pointed it out.