Ford New Ideas/Consumer Innovation Office

In order to review the thousands of ideas we receive each year, we have a strict process for reviewing your ideas. Our process reflects a balance of your interests and rights and those of Ford Motor Company. In return for your acceptance of the Idea Submission Terms & Conditions, Ford Motor Company offers a non-confidential, preliminary evaluation of your submitted materials.

Please note that a lot of the ideas submitted to the company are:

• already disclosed in prior literature and patents by other inventors
• have been previously considered
• being developed or already developed by us or another automotive company

Regardless of our response, we appreciate your input and your enthusiasm for Ford Motor Company and our products.

Is this the right place for your idea?
For sponsorship proposals, go here instead.
If you are seeking to become a supplier to Ford, go here instead.

PROTECT YOUR IDEAS

Your ideas may be valuable. We urge you to take measures to protect your idea before you submit it for our evaluation.

We will only review submitted ideas on a non-confidential basis. Under the laws of the United States and most foreign countries, you may be able to protect your ideas by obtaining patents, trademarks and copyrights. Further, you may be able to maintain your ideas as “trade secrets” by protecting them from non-confidential disclosure. However, our policy does not allow a confidential review, so if you would like to keep your ideas confidential, do not submit them to us.

Non-confidential disclosure of any inventive part of your idea to others (such as Ford) prior to obtaining a patent may result in loss of potential patent rights in most countries of the world. So, we strongly recommend that, before you present your idea to us, you consult a patent attorney for professional advice. The costs involved in obtaining such advice are your sole responsibility.

For a list of patent offices around the world, visit http://members.pcug.org.au/~arhen/.

PROTECTING FORD MOTOR COMPANY

Ford Motor Company takes a substantial risk when we review non-patented ideas from outside of the Company. A mere idea is not valuable until a significant amount of money is invested developing it, so we must be extremely cautious about which ideas receive funds. In addition, ideas that are submitted to the company may already be disclosed in prior literature and patents, may have been previously considered or already developed by us, or we may be developing an idea that is similar to your idea. This can cause confusion about the origin of the idea. We must be able to prove that our idea was developed independently of your idea.

Determining who developed what aspects of an idea can be a complex and time-consuming process involving hundreds of people. There is considerably less risk if we develop ideas from the people we employ. In fact the vast majority of the ideas used by Ford Motor Company originate with our employees or suppliers.

Before submitting your idea, first, please review our list of top ideas commonly received by the Consumer Innovation Office.

READ THE RULES AND SUBMIT YOUR IDEA

In order to review your idea and mitigate our risk, we developed the following rules and terms & conditions. If you would like us to review your idea, you must agree to them.

Please read the rules, terms & conditions carefully and contact your attorney before submitting ideas to the Company.

Read the Terms & Conditions and Submit Your Idea