I heard some great news today. Ford Global announced that their EcoBoost engine is contributing 125 patents and applications to the company. Ford has always had a very solid patent portfolio, focusing on implementation and value and then deciding whether their implementation is worthy of a patent. I guess you can consider Ford's innovation is driving their patenting instead of the other way around, which is perfectly fine.

In any case, Ford continues to produce some of the highest quality vehicles in the world and is one of the few American companies that is not only competitive with foreign manufacturers, but is frequently better than foreign manufacturers.