Lesson Plans - Flash of Genius

Before the film

This is a film about an invention, and a desire to manufacture the invented product.    Next it is a film about following one's passion.  Specifically the film looks at where  passion stops and obsession starts.  And thirdly it is a film about ethics, on a personal and professional level.  While these layers may seem daunting, it's actually a very easy story to follow and understand. 

Useful words for the film:

windshield or windscreen wiper (British) – tergicristallo
to infringe – infrangere. 
Patent – exclusive rights
to sue – fare causa

The very beginning of the film is actually three years into the story, with a moment that the protagonist of the film, Bob Kerns, has “lost his mind” and is convinced the vice-president wants to see him and his product.  It's the police who find him and bring him back to a mental hospital for care.  Then the film flashes back three years to the beginning of the story.  The scene lasts 2 minutes but prepare the students for this scene to limit confusion.  From there the film is chronological.

Bob Kerns is the father of six children, has a simple life with his family and is a professor of Engineering at the local University.  The city, Detroit, in which the family lives is an important point.  This is the center of the American car industry at the time, doing 20 million dollars in business a year.  Ford, Mercury, and Chysler were all located there.

Prof Kerns gives a lecture toward the beginning of the film about ethics.  He says an engineer built the artificial heart valves and the execution chambers at Aushwitz.  He asks his students to think carefully about the ethics involved in their work.  What does this mean, exactly?  Watch for this lecture in the film and discuss it again afterwards.

Mr. Kerns has a bad eye.  It is explained more than once during the film how he lost part of his eye site.  Ask the students to look for this story and be ready to recount it after the film.  He lived at a time when cars did not have automatic windscreen wipers (pronounced windshield wipers in American English in the film).  His weak eye site got him thinking that maybe there was a way to help the driver's ability to see when it's raining.  With some contemplation, testing, and engineering skills, he came up with an automated version of the wipers.  He called them the Kerns Blinking Eye Wiper.

Kerns finds some business partners to help him “package” the windscreen wiper product and “sell” the idea to car companies.  Ford is immediately interested.  They say they need to view the product closely since it is considered a “safety” product on the car and needs federally regulated approval.  Bob reluctantly agrees to let them have the product for review purposes.  Shortly thereafter, for inexplicable reasons, Ford pulls out of the deal and no longer wants to do business with Bob Kerns.  Later, during a rainstorm, Bob sees some Ford cars with automatic windscreen wipers and discovers that indeed his invention has been used by the Ford Motor Company.  He feels robbed of his idea and is determined to fight.

Technically Bob and his business partners filed patents on the windscreen wipers but the patents were not accepted or rather were not considered a protected product for reasons that come out toward the end of the film when Kerns himself is on the testimony stand in the courtroom.  I will go into that explanation in the section below.  What important for the story line is that it seems likely that Ford used their legal and financial power to block the patents from taken hold.  Ask the students to look for the explanation toward the end of the film of what is considered an invention from the point of view of the US Patent Office.  And you can get ready for the film by discussing what inventions should be protected by a patent.

In the film, Bob's life is now dominated with thoughts of vengeance and justice at the thought of another company using his idea, his invention.  He has a nervous breakdown and the movie comes back to the scene with which it began with Kerns on the bus and taken to a mental hospital by the policemen.  He spends 3 months in a mental facility and slowly works his way back to feeling normal.  But once back at home he wants nothing more than to vindicate himself with Ford once again.  He finds yet one more lawyer to help. This lawyer has a different attitude.  He takes the “long” view, as he says and fights the big fights.  He seems a rational voice at a time Kerns is beginning to get obsessed by his battle.

The relationship with the new lawyer, though, ends too with Kerns deciding to fight on despite the financial agreement this lawyer is able to put together.  Discuss the distinction between interest or passion with obsession.  Where/what  is the distinction? 

Kerns sues Ford and finally, in the last portion of the film, the court scene arrives.  There are some very interesting arguments that get presented, the most interesting of which is this:  an expert in electrical engineering points out that “Bob Kerns' invention is made up of electronic/mechanical parts that already exist.  You could find any of them in a catalog.  All Mr. Kerns did was to arrange them in a different way.  That is not really considered an invention.”  Prof Kerns counter argues using A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens.  He began by reading the first very famous line “This was the best of times, the worst of times.  It was the age of wisdom, the age of foolishness....”  He asks the electronics expert “ the word “this,” “was,” “the” and so on.  He holds up a dictionary and says, I bet you could find all the words already exist here.”  Kerns points out that the telephone, the space satellite were put together as well from parts that already existed, parts you could find in a catalog.  This is an interesting point for conversation.  Ask the students, what exactly is an invention?

After the Film

Once Bob Kerns invents the windscreen wiper, he wants to manufacture it himself with his family.  Why?  Why not just sell the invention to the highest bidder?

When Bob Kerns shows the windscreen wiper to the Research and Development team at Ford, he backs up the car so that no one can see anything.  His business partner, Gill Previk, says he is very cautious.  What did Gill mean?

When Bob Kerns spoke to his wife about his windscreen wiper invention he said “good ideas don't necessarily mean good products.”  What did he mean by that statement?  Was the windscreen wiper a good product as well as a good idea?  Why?  Bob also asked himself what makes success?  Not just an idea but also variables like luck, timing.  Discuss this point.  What do you think makes success?

Once Ford pulls out of the deal and Kerns no longer has an agreement Kerns is livid and wants vindication immediately.  His partner, Gill, says – “Bob, it's just a windscreen wiper.”  What did Gill mean?

Describe the lawyer performed by Alan Alda in the middle of the film.  He was the older lawyer who was able to negotiate an agreement with the Ford company.  What was the agreement?  What was Alan Alda's position on taking the agreement?  Why?  Bob said “this fight is about more than money; if I don't fight no one will ever stand a chance.”  What did Bob mean by that statement? 

Bob speaks again with Gill about Ford's offer to “settle,” and Gill suggests that Bob sue him for at least the sole title of the patents.  This is a difficult point to follow.  Bob sued to claim ownership so that he was free to then sue Ford in court for infringement of those patents.

As Bob became more and more preoccupied with the legal fight against Ford, his wife chooses to leave him along with the children.  Later when Bob meets up with his oldest son, his son says “Dad, we weren't a corporation but a family and we weren't even that.”  What did he mean by that?  What do you think of Bob's fight at the “expense” of his family?  Ford soon offers $1 million but Bob says he doesn't want the money unless Ford takes out an ad in the paper saying they stole Bob Kern's windscreen wiper idea.  Again, what do you think of Bob's position?  Could we say that Bob is obsessed?  Or could we say he is simply courageous in deciding to fight on until the end for the principle of the matter

Why the patents were not accepted:

While Kerns was interviewing himself in court, he speaks of how the US Patent Office views invention.  He says that the Patent Office looks for a “flash of genius,” to qualify a product for a patent, a flash of an idea that visualizes the product.  Otherwise, it is assumed the idea did not come from that inventor.  Kerns explains his “flash.”  It came on his wedding night when he lost part of his eye site from the cork of the champagne bottle flying into his eye.  That eye often blinks uncontrollably.  When he was coming back from church one rainy day and he couldn't see well through the windscreen he said to himself, “why can't a windscreen wiper blink?”

Ask the students if they have ever had a flash of an idea?  A flash of genius?  Do you know anyone who has?   Kerns petitions the patent office FIVE times that his invention has been violated by Ford and each time is turned down.  

Toward the end of the film, Ford attempts one last time to negotiate outside the courtroom with an offer of $30 million for Kerns and his family.  This time the children say no.  What did you think of their response in the film?  What would you have said?

Then with the last days of the court scene, Kerns is asked about his mental illness.  Do you think Kerns risked his entire legal fight at that point?  Why?  Do you think it was right that Ford could ask him about such personal issues in a court of law?

In the end, with the closing statements, Ford argued their car was the best (like the lemon pie).  Kerns argued that Ford stole his idea and he wanted recognition of his invention.  In the end the jury decides that Kerns suffered infringement of his idea and his patents and wins over $100 million from Ford with additional wins against other car companies. 

In the end the legal battle took him over 12 years and the loss of his marraige.  In your opinion, was it worth it?