Jacob Krippelz has won an 11-year legal battle against Ford over a lighting system he patented. In 1991, Krippelz patented his design for a small lamp mounted to side view mirrors, now known as a “puddle lamp”. He sent a copy of his patent to Ford soon after it was issued, according to court documents. The auto maker told him they were not interested in the invention. Six years later, Krippelz walked into his local Ford dealer and saw the lamp on a vehicle. Ford’s puddle lamp supplier had its own patent, which refers to Krippelz’s patent.

In December, a federal jury in Chicago awarded him $23 million in royalties for Ford’s patent infringement, but the case was not over. Last week, U.S. District Judge James Zagel more than doubled the award, to $55.6 million, due to “willful” infringement laws, after finding that Ford had sold vehicles with similar lamps even though the company knew of the potential infringement.