Patent infringement lawsuit against Mercedes-Benz dismissed
A patent infringement lawsuit brought by The Phelan Group against Mercedes-Benz has been dismissed with prejudice.
Phelan Group alleged that vehicles equipped with Mercedes ADAS services and Mercedes Connect are its inventions, which the automaker used without authorization or licensing. Phelan claimed that 26 features allegedly infringe on seven patents held by their company, including steering and brake assist, driver authentication, and vehicle use controlling and/or monitoring.
“With knowledge of the patents-in-suit and The Phelan Group’s claims of infringement, Mercedes-Benz touts the patented features and instructs its customers to infringe by implementing the systems in an infringing manner,” states Phelan’s second amended complaint.
Mercedes’s motion to dismiss, filed in July 2024 shortly after Phelan’s second amended complaint, states that Phelan’s claims fail to:
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- Support its direct infringement allegations with facts sufficient to make them plausible
- State a plausible claim for indirect infringement
- State a plausible claim for willful infringement
- State a plausible claim for pre-suit damages
Mercedes argued that Phelan didn’t provide factual allegations and included “only a single sentence incorporating a laundry list of disjointed verbiage from the claims of the asserted patents.”
Phelan settled with Honda in February regarding a similar lawsuit. The suit claimed Honda Sensing, the automaker’s remote services, including HondaLink, and all materially similar ADAS and driver authentication systems infringed on the same seven patents as in the case against Mercedes. The details of the settlement weren’t made public.
Phelan also sued State Farm, claiming the insurer infringed on one of its patents with the “Drive Safe & Save” platform. The case was settled in June. State Farm filed a counterclaim against Phelan, which was thrown out as part of the dismissal ordered in November.
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