Not if Kearns was substantially justified in bringing a suit under the Equal Access to Justice Act, which would be hard to deny based on his having demonstrated the invention to Ford. Kearns could have still taken the $18 million awarded to him without additional risk. (His son could maybe not nowadays get away with putting his .45 automatic on the desk during negotiations, though)
What the bill would do is prevent Kearns from selling his invention to a shell company with Chrysler as parent and suing Ford drivers for using the intermittent-wiper invention, since Ford would now be able to act on behalf of the defendants in these cases, and Chrysler would be liable for paying fees if they had acted in bad faith.
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Not if Kearns was substantially justified in bringing a suit under the Equal Access to Justice Act, which would be hard to deny based on his having demonstrated the invention to Ford. Kearns could have still taken the $18 million awarded to him without additional risk. (His son could maybe not nowadays get away with putting his .45 automatic on the desk during negotiations, though)
What the bill would do is prevent Kearns from selling his invention to a shell company with Chrysler as parent and suing Ford drivers for using the intermittent-wiper invention, since Ford would now be able to act on behalf of the defendants in these cases, and Chrysler would be liable for paying fees if they had acted in bad faith.