Patent Lawsuit?


In "Race to the Top" we're left with the impending effects of the class action lawsuit launched by Indian on Harley-Davidson. Settlement is decided on and the first machine off the line is rediscovered. Implication is that the rebuild will begin.

"Legacy" begins with a quantum jump ahead. No information on the settlement or the rebuild efforts. Oddly enough, I can't find information online as to the challenges and progress of the rebuild. Information I would like to know for the whole story.

Bad writing? Bad editing? Should have been 4-part episode instead of 3? How HD manages to survive would have been more critical to the story - one would assume - than Walter's feud with his son.

Thoughts?

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I've tried searching and only found mention of Keating's lawsuits of both Harley Davidson and Hendee (Indian) in 1917 for his very early 1900's patents, but haven't seen anything of later lawsuits by Indian and others against Harley.

Not sure if there was some literary license taken by the writers (LOL it's not like they didn't take a lot anyway) to change those lawsuits to what we saw, or if there were other lawsuits that aren't as easy to find on the internet.

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So... it wasn't just me. I didn't just black out and miss the segment that covered nearly 20 years of business? Phew. Thanks, homergreg!

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Keating ended up licensing both companies to use his patents as and outcome of the 1917 litigation. In the series they make Hendee look like a bad guy and I expect the same literary license was used in making Edsel Ford look like a bad guy on the Servicar deal. I'm not convinced there was ever any direct dealing with Ford and everything I've read about Edsel was that he was quite mild mannered and not the cut throat business man that his father was. The deal with the Japanese isn't well known, but it happened. Motorcycle company in Japan was Rikuo.

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You're right about Edsel's personality, but remember Henry was still alive and still The Boss. Henry gave Edsel the Lincoln side of things to run, but Ford was still dad's baby. People speculated at the time that Henry's relentless pushing of the sensitive and creative Edsel is what caused the son's ulcers, and ultimately his stomach cancer. After Edsel died young in 1943, Henry was remorseful and kind of fell apart, but it was too late and he died just two years later.

Case in point: Ford was the last auto company to unionize in 1941 and only because war was likely imminent and Roosevelt twisted Henry's arm. I know all this because I'm from Detroit and my grandparents met working at Ford in the 30s. My grandfather ended up going over to Chrysler and worked there for 33 years.

Now a story about Ford would be a great project for Discovery! They wouldn't even have to make stuff up....there's plenty drama there.

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I seem to recall a film about Henry Ford. Cliff Robertson played him, and if memory serves me correctly, there was plenty of drama and they included his activities related to his position on WWII for which he was heavily criticized.

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Yep! And fat old white guy had a southern accent to complete the stereotype.

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Yeah, what they called one of the "goons".

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