BorgWarner Inc. Pays $25 Million to Honeywell in Partial Settlement of Turbocharger Patent Infringement Suit
MORRISTOWN, N.J.--July 29, 2002--Honeywell announced today that BorgWarner Inc. has paid $25 million as a partial settlement and a patent infringement suit. The settlement, agreed to a week earlier and executed today, came after the District Court in Dusseldorf, Germany, granted Honeywell's request for a preliminary injunction requiring BorgWarner immediately to cease production of its turbochargers that infringe Honeywell's patent.
In order to permit automotive manufacturers to continue operations, Honeywell agreed to grant a license through June 30, 2003, enabling BorgWarner for a limited time to continue sales of models of its variable geometry turbochargers that would otherwise violate the court order enforcing Honeywell's European Patent 0226444.
According to Honeywell, while BorgWarner's payment to Honeywell does not fully compensate for the harm that BorgWarner's infringement has caused, Honeywell agreed to enter into the partial settlement to address the needs of customers.
"Honeywell invests considerably in research and development across all businesses, and is committed to taking all appropriate actions to protect our world-class technology portfolio," said Peter Kreindler, Honeywell senior vice president and general counsel. "This successful lawsuit marks another example of Honeywell's commitment to vigorously defending our intellectual property rights, in this case, our innovative variable geometry turbocharging technologies."
Honeywell first filed its lawsuit in Germany and elsewhere in Europe after becoming aware that BorgWarner's German subsidiary, 3K-Warner Turbosystems, had begun selling a product that looked similar to the GT-17 VTG turbocharger developed and patented by Honeywell's Garrett unit. Honeywell's Garrett has a long-standing tradition as a leading innovator of turbocharging technology. Garrett helped pioneer variable geometry turbocharging in the mid-to-late 1980s.
Honeywell is a US$24-billion diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; automotive products; specialty chemicals; fibers; plastics; and electronic and advanced materials. Honeywell employs approximately 115,000 people in 95 countries and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol HON, as well as on the London, Chicago and Pacific stock exchanges. It is one of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average and is also a component of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Additional information on the company is available on the Internet at www.honeywell.com.
This release contains forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements about future business operations, financial performance and market conditions. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties inherent in business forecasts as further described in our filings under the Securities Exchange Act.
