Robert William Kearns (March 10, 1927 – February 9, 2005) was an American engineer, educator and inventor who invented the most common intermittent

windshield wiper A windscreen wiper, windshield wiper, wiper blade (American English), or simply wiper, is a device used to remove rain, snow, ice, washer fluid, water, or debris from a vehicle's front window. Almost all motor vehicles, including cars, tru ...

systems used on most

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s from 1969 to the present. His first patent for the invention was filed on December 1, 1964, after a few previous designs by other inventors had failed to gain any traction in manufacturing. Kearns won one of the best known patent infringement cases against

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

(1978–1990) and a case against Chrysler Corporation (1982–1992). Having invented and patented the intermittent windshield wiper mechanism, which was useful in light rain or mist, he tried to interest the " Big Three" auto makers ( General Motors,

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

, and Chrysler) in

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the technology. Each rejected his proposal, yet began to install electronic intermittent wipers based on Kearns's design in their cars, beginning in 1969, when Ford rolled out the feature to its Mercury line. Kearns's legal battle against Ford to protect his invention and patent was the subject of a 1993 article in

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magazine, which became the basis for a full-length biographical feature film titled ''

Flash of Genius In United States patent law, the flash of genius doctrine was a test for patentability used by the United States Federal Courts for just over a decade, beginning circa 1940. Origin The doctrine was formalized by the Supreme Court's opinion in '' ...

'' in 2008. Kearns was played by actor

Greg Kinnear Gregory Buck Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in ''As Good as It Gets'' (1997). Kinnear has appeared in many popular films, including '' Sabrina'' (1 ...

. Kearns had six children with his wife Phyllis, although they separated, supposedly as a result of the stress from the legal battle. He died of brain cancer at the age of 77.

Education and early career

Kearns served in the US Army in intelligence related groups and tool manufacturing. He was a member of the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the U.S.

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

, during

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. He earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the

University of Detroit Mercy The University of Detroit Mercy is a private Roman Catholic university in Detroit, Michigan. It is sponsored by both the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy. The university was founded in 1877 and is the largest Catholic univers ...

, a master's degree in engineering mechanics from

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

, and a doctorate from

Case Institute of Technology Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location i ...

."Robert Kearns, Inventor of Intermittent Windshield Wipers and Battled Car Companies, Dies at 77" AP News, February 25, 2005
/ref>

Intermittent wipers

Kearns claimed that the inspiration for his invention stems from an incident on his wedding night in 1953, when an errant

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cork shot into his left eye, leaving him legally blind in that eye. Nearly a decade later in 1963, Kearns was driving his

Ford Galaxie The Ford Galaxie is a full-sized car that was built in the United States by Ford for model years 1959 through to 1974. The name was used for the top models in Ford's full-size range from 1958 until 1961, in a marketing attempt to appeal to the e ...

through a light rain, and the constant movement of the wiper blades irritated his already troubled vision. He modeled his mechanism on the human eye, which blinks every few seconds, rather than continuously, presenting the idea to Ford. Ford representatives liked the idea wanting to rush it into at least one of their next model year's vehicles but later abandoned plans after Kearns had begun setting up manufacturing facilities for the invention. When Ford introduced the feature in 1969, Kearns challenged the automaker, refusing offers of a settlement insisting that the case be heard in court, acting as his own lawyer. He began official legal proceedings some 9 years later.

Lawsuits

The lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company was opened in 1978 and ended in 1990. Kearns sought $395 million in damages. He turned down a $30 million settlement offer in 1990 and took it to the jury, which awarded him $5.2 million; Ford agreed to pay $10.2 million rather than face another round of litigation. Kearns mostly acted as his own attorney in the subsequent suit against Chrysler, which began in 1982, even questioning witnesses on the stand. The Chrysler verdict was decided in Kearns's favor in 1992. Chrysler was ordered to pay Kearns US$18.7 million with interest.Associated Press
''Robert Kearns, 77, Inventor of Intermittent Wipers, Dies''
New York Times obituary, February 26, 2005. via Associated Press. Chrysler appealed the court decision, but the

Federal Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (in case citations, Fed. Cir. or C.A.F.C.) is a United States court of appeals that has special appellate jurisdiction over certain types of specialized cases in the U.S. federal court ...

let the judgment stand.''Kearns v. Chrysler Corp.'', 32 F.3d 1541 (Fed. Cir. 1994). The Supreme Court declined to hear the case. By 1995, after spending over US$10 million in legal fees, Kearns received approximately US$30 million in compensation for Chrysler's patent infringement. Chrysler was represented by

Harness, Dickey and Pierce Harness IP is a law firm headquartered in Troy, Michigan. In October 2021, the firm announced it has adopted Harness IP as its new name. The firm previously went by the abbreviated Harness Dickey. Harness IP focuses exclusively on intellectual p ...

, one of the first firms Kearns went to when he contemplated suing Ford in the late 1970s. Indeed, according to his son Dennis Kearns, Kearns wanted Harness, Dickey and Pierce removed for conflict of interest, but was unable to convince his attorneys to make a motion to remove Harness, Dickey and Pierce. He then decided to manage the Chrysler litigation on his own with his family.Schudel, Matt.
Accomplished, Frustrated Inventor Dies
" ''

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''. Saturday February 26, 2005. B01. Retrieved on August 13, 2011. Kearns filed lawsuits against manufacturers (and some dealers) of Ford, Porsche,

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...

, Ferrari,

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Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." "A ...

, Lotus, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Nissan,

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

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Rolls-Royce Motors Rolls-Royce Motors was a British luxury car manufacturer, created in 1973 during the de-merger of the Rolls-Royce automotive business from the nationalised Rolls-Royce Limited. It produced luxury cars under the Rolls-Royce and Bentley brands. ...

Saab Saab or SAAB may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Saab Group, a Swedish aerospace and defence company, formerly known as SAAB, and later as Saab AB ** Datasaab, a former computer company, started as spin off from Saab AB * Saab Automobile, a fo ...

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, General Motors,

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as well as parts manufacturers such as

United Technologies United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous areas, including aircraft engines, aerospace systems, ...

, and Bosch. Through decades of litigation, Kearns was dropped by three law firms and continued to serve as his own attorney. Several cases were dismissed after Kearns missed deadlines in other filing papers. His wife said, "He told me from day one, 'This is not about money,' no lawyer believed it."

Auto industry's legal argument

The legal argument that the auto industry posed in defense was that an invention is supposed to meet certain standards of originality and novelty ("

flash of genius In United States patent law, the flash of genius doctrine was a test for patentability used by the United States Federal Courts for just over a decade, beginning circa 1940. Origin The doctrine was formalized by the Supreme Court's opinion in '' ...

"). One of these is that it be " non-obvious". Ford claimed that the patent was invalid because Kearns's intermittent windshield wiper system had no new components (it used all "off-the-shelf" parts). Kearns noted that his invention was a novel and non-obvious combination of parts. Kearns's position found unequivocal support in precedent from the

U.S. Court of Appeals The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal judiciary. The courts of appeals are divided into 11 numbered circuits that cover geographic areas of the United States and hear appeals fr ...

and from the Supreme Court of the United States:

Family and career

Robert Kearns was the son of Martin J. Kearns & Mary E. O'Hara. Kearns and his family moved to

Montgomery Village, Maryland Montgomery Village is a census-designated place (CDP) in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, and a northern suburb of Washington, D.C. It is a large, planned suburban community, developed in the late 1960s and 1970s just outside Gaithers ...

in 1971 where he worked for the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

creating a standard for measuring skid resistance on roadways. His youngest son, 14 at the time and too young to be served court papers, answered the family's door when visitors arrived. In 1976, the intermittent wiper feature appeared on a Mercedes auto, and Kearns soon suffered a mental breakdown. After winning the Ford and Chrysler cases, Kearns moved to Maryland's Eastern Shore. In the late 1990s, he served on the board of directors of the Veterans of the Office of Strategic Services and the General

William J. Donovan William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan (January 1, 1883 – February 8, 1959) was an American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat, best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the Bur ...

Memorial Fund.Bob Kearns' Biography page
/ref>

Death and legacy

The story of Kearns invention and the lawsuit that resulted against Ford forms the basis of the 2008 film, ''

'', where he is played by

. Several family members attended the movie's premiere. Kearns obsessions broke down his 27-year marriage and caused distance between him and his children. His wife later remarried; she died in 2013. On February 9, 2005, in Sykesville, Maryland, Kearns died of a combination of prostate and brain cancer complicated by Alzheimer's disease.Maryland death certificate #2005-04311 eath certificate states cause of death: Metastatic Prostate Cancer/ref> At the time of Kearns death he had two daughters, four sons and seven grandchildren.Kearns, 77, Inventor of Intermittent Wipers, Dies, February 25, 2005
Retrieved July 1, 2018

Patents

Robert W. Kearns, Filing date: December 1, 1964, Issue date: Nov 1967, ''Windshield Wiper System with Intermittent Operation''

Robert W. Kearns, Filing date: October 18, 1967, Issue date: August 31, 1971. ''Intermittent Windshield Wiper System''.

Robert W. Kearns, Timothy B. Kearns, Filing date: September 7, 1982, Issue date: October 1, 1985, ''Intermittent windshield wiper control system with improved motor speed''
United States Patent 3,582,747
Robert W Kearns Filing Date May 3, 1968, Issue date: June 1, 1971, ''Intermittent windshield wiper system with electrodynamic braking''
United States Patent 3,581,178
Robert W Kearns Filing Date April 10, 1968, Issue date: May 25, 1971, ''Windshield wiper control device''
22 other patents

Lawsuits and legal references

* Kearns v. Ford Motor Co., 203, U.S.P.Q. 884, 888 (E.D.Mich. 1978) * Kearns v. Chrysler Corp., 32 F.3d 1541 (Fed. Cir. 1994) * Kearns v. General Motors Corp., 152 F.3d 945 (Fed. Cir. 1998) (unpublished decision).

References

;Other sources * John Seabrook, Seabrook, John
"The Flash of Genius: Bob Kearns and his patented windshield wiper have been winning millions of dollars in settlements from the auto industry, and forcing the issue of who owns an idea"

, January 11, 1993 * Seabrook, John, ''Flash of Genius And Other True Stories of Invention'', St. Martin's Griffin, September 2008.

External links

Robert Kearns biographical film called ''Flash of Genius'' (2008)
*

Baltimore Sun, November 28, 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kearns, Robert 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American inventors Deaths from cancer in Maryland Neurological disease deaths in Maryland Case Western Reserve University alumni Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Deaths from brain cancer in the United States Discovery and invention controversies People from Detroit People from Gary, Indiana University of Detroit Mercy alumni Wayne State University alumni 1927 births 2005 deaths