A professor from Georgia sued Lyft for using an idea he had in 1999.
A new lawsuit goes through the industry and this time it has the car broker Lyft met. The retired professor of engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Stephen Dickerson, sued the company because of the billing method.
Aptiv Lyft fleet. Source: Aptiv
Back in 1999, Stephen Dickerson got the idea of how to use a cellular phone and GPS can process an invoice automatically. That was an essential feature of Lyft’s business model, something he was never paid for. That’s why he filed suit against Lyft in New York last Monday.
The invention was developed by Ride App Inc., owned by Dickerson. He now wants royalties for it. According to him, you would have to pay him around one billion US dollars a year. First, he has filed a private injunction.
The idea, which dates back to 1999, came at a time when the GPS was not yet integrated by the telecommunications providers. But he had the vision to handle all forms of subscribed forms of mobility.
The company Lyft was founded in 2012 and recently valued at $ 15.1 billion. It has established more than 600 locations and wants to expand further. Lyft but did not want to comment on the allegations.
Why the lawsuit has just been filed privately has to do with the retrieval of the patent. That did not happen until this year – 17 years after he transferred the patent right to the University of Georgia Tech. The university apparently did not want any legal action Submit.
Now the concept is very common and Lyft is not the only company doing so. Dickerson’s lawyer, Jeffrey Toney, did not want to say if other companies would be sued for doing so. However, Dickerson now wants to implement the concept and finalize the invention.
source (English)