He didn't patent wiper delay. He did the wiper delay mechanism and control. He came up with an actual engineered design.

Here's a quote from a post I read a while back. . .

" check out US patent number 1558806, applied for by a Mr. Hess of Union, Oregon in 1921. Not to take away any of the elegence of Toyota's design, but Mr. Hess was a little ahead of his time! It's all there, the planetary gear power divider, the electric motor/generators, batteries, engine etc! "

I wonder who owns that patent now.

Patents need to expire faster. That would encourage real innovation because more technology would enter the public domain where improvement can freely occur without the expense of licensing patented technology.

2001 Prius Photos       2005 Prius Photos
1992 Mitsubishi Delica Diesel-WVO Hybrid Photos

Patents need to expire faster? Thats pretty noble for a consumer to say but how does an inventor/investor retieve their capital investment if they have no means to capitalize on their investment? The net effect of what you suggest is their will be less incentive to create new technology. However what you are advocating is already happening because the patent office invalidates your patent every 4 years if you don't pay them an extortion fee(they call it an maintenance fee). Please read the links at this site http://cleverlever99.blogspot.com Guess how much incentive I have to produce any new energy saving inventions?

Toyota patent infringement
They already lost one hybrid lawsuit http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/courtwe...C/05-00525.PDF This happened almost in my backyard. I know this document says they lost but Toyota settled out of court while the case was in route to appeals