Is this the right place for your idea?

This site is available for you to submit certain nonconfidential ideas to Ford Motor Company.  In order to be considered, submissions must relate to products, features or function.  Ford does not accept the following types of submissions:

• Confidential information of any type
• Product styling or design
• Product names, slogans or logos
• Advertisements or Marketing Ideas (Commercials, Songs, etc.)
• Business methods or ways of conducting our business (restructuring, bail-out, etc.)
• Those that suggest perpetual motion (e.g. “doesn’t require fuel”, “recharges itself”, use of magnets, recapture of wheel or wind energy)

For proposals related to sponsorship or becoming a supplier, please use the following links:

For sponsorship proposals, go here instead. (event and experientially-based sponsorships)
If you are seeking to become a supplier to Ford, go here instead.

Protect Your Ideas

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

Ford will only review submitted ideas on a non-confidential basis.  You should appreciate that a 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.  If you desire to keep your information confidential, do not disclose it to Ford. 

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

Protecting Ford Motor Company

Just as Ford expects others to respect our intellectual property rights, we are committed to respecting the intellectual property rights of others.  In order to minimize the risk associated with receiving ideas outside the Company and to avoid misunderstandings, Ford requires you to agree to our Rules and Terms and Conditions.

Understand that Ford cannot adopt most of the ideas that are submitted to the Company.   A mere idea is not valuable until a significant amount of time and money is invested developing it, so we must be extremely disciplined in making decisions regarding which ideas receive our attention and investment. In addition, most ideas submitted to the company are already in the public domain or are already in Ford’s possession (and therefore these submissions do not have value to the Company).  For example, many ideas have already been disclosed in prior literature or patents, or are used in products.  Many other ideas have been previously considered by Ford, and others are currently under development by Ford. Additionally, many ideas are simply not practical due to cost, legislation, environmental circumstances, or physical laws.

Ford and its suppliers invest billions of dollars each year and have thousands of employees around the world engaged in research and development of new ideas.  If Ford has something development that is similar to a disclosure, this can cause confusion about the origin of the idea.  That is why we avoid evaluating ideas that could create a conflict with our internal efforts. Determining who developed certain 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. The vast majority of the ideas used by Ford Motor Company originate with our employees or suppliers.  

Ideas to Refrain From Submitting

Before submitting your idea, first, please review our list of most frequently submitted ideas by the Consumer Innovation Office.  We do not want you to waste your time submitting these ideas (or our time reviewing them), as we will reject your submission.  

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.  Please read the Rules, and Terms & Conditions carefully and contact your attorney before submitting ideas to the Company. If you would like us to review your idea, you must agree to the Rules, and Terms & Conditions.    

Thank You for Your Interest in Ford Motor Company

Even if we reject a submission, we appreciate your input and your enthusiasm for Ford Motor Company and our products.