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Russian Says He Invented Prius...

...ok, so not the Prius per se, but the high-voltage system used by Toyota to turn the model into the most successful hybrid on the market. The Russian's name is Alex Severinsky, he's 65, he's an immigrant to the US and, if he manages to have his way, a very rich man.

Severinsky, who used to create antitank instrumentation back in Mother Russia, says he came up with high-voltage system back in 1994 and even patented the invention. Currently, the case sits on the table of the US International Trade Commission (ITC), who must decide whether the Russian has a case and, if so, what's the best course of action.

According to Bloomberg, Severinsky kept asking these past few years for the Japanese manufacturer to pay royalties, but was unsuccessful.

What's even more interesting is that Severinsky has already won another intellectual property rights case against Toyota in 2005, when the carmaker was forced to pay him $4.27 million for an infringement of Severinsky's patent on torque technology on an earlier Prius.

The matter is very sensitive, with some already talking about banning the sale of the Prius in the US.

“I think that they’d be willing to tell Toyota their product is banned,” Lyle Vander Schaaf, patent lawyer with Brinks Hofer told the source.

“Between a detrimental impact on the U.S. economy and protecting intellectual-property rights, they have chosen the path of protecting intellectual-property rights.”


Toyota officials are however confident that will not be the case, but doesn't necessarily deny using Severinsky's idea.

“We’re confident that the government will look at this for what it is,”
Jim Lentz, Toyota US president said. “I don’t think it would be in the best interest of the American consumer to take the No. 1-selling hybrid off the market.”
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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