How much did Robert Kearns get in settlements?
The clearest public figure tied to Robert Kearns’ patent battles is that Ford Motor Company paid him about $10 million in a settlement reached around 1969. Other automakers also settled with Kearns, but their exact amounts were not publicly disclosed. The total amount across all settlements has not been officially confirmed.
What follows is a detailed look at what is known about the settlements, how they unfolded, and what they reveal about invention rights, corporate litigation, and the legacy of Kearns’s design.
The Ford settlement
Before outlining the specifics, it’s important to note that Ford’s agreement with Kearns remains the best-documented monetary figure tied to the case. The settlement was reached after years of litigation and helped end disputes over the intermittent wiper patent.
- Amount: approximately $10 million (in 1969 dollars).
- Year: 1969 (settlement reached after protracted litigation).
- Context: resolved patent litigation by granting a license to Ford while ending ongoing legal battles related to Kearns’s invention.
The Ford settlement is frequently cited as the most prominent monetary outcome of Kearns’s efforts, and it underscored the high stakes involved when inventors contest larger corporate practices in the automotive sector.
Other automaker settlements
Beyond Ford, Kearns pursued claims against other manufacturers, and those parties eventually reached settlements as well. However, the exact sums of these deals were not made public in the way Ford’s was, and figures vary across sources.
- General Motors: terms were not publicly disclosed.
- Chrysler (and other manufacturers): terms were not publicly disclosed.
In the broader historical record, the lack of publicly released amounts for these additional settlements means that the total that Kearns received from all automakers remains opaque. Analysts and historians emphasize that the Ford agreement is the most reliably documented figure from the era.
Inflation-adjusted context
When converted to today’s dollars, the 1969 settlement figure cited for Ford is typically described as a large, seven- to eight-figure sum depending on the inflation measure used. Exact inflation-adjusted totals for the other settlements, given their undisclosed natures, are not independently verifiable.
Summary
Publicly known: Ford paid Robert Kearns about $10 million in a 1969 settlement, which is the best-documented monetary figure from his patent battles. Settlements with General Motors and Chrysler followed, but their amounts were not disclosed publicly. The overall total across all settlements remains unconfirmed in official records.
In context: The Kearns case is a landmark example of inventor rights in the auto industry, highlighting how settlements can resolve long-running disputes while leaving some financial details private. The Ford settlement stands as the clearest, historically recognized monetary outcome, with the full picture of all settlements not fully disclosed.
