Honda of America Mfg., Inc.

Honda of America Mfg., Inc. (HAM) was a U.S. manufacturing subsidiary of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Tokyo; NYSE: HMC). Established in February 1978 and headquartered at 24000 Honda Parkway, Marysville, Ohio, it began production on September 10, 1979 — the first Japanese automaker to build products in America. It was wholly owned by Honda Motor Co. and was not itself publicly traded; some third-party data aggregators incorrectly list it as "public." Historical company figures put employment around 12,500–13,000 associates in Ohio during the 2000s.

Operations: HAM ran Honda's largest North American production base, including the Marysville Auto Plant (Accord sedan/coupe, and later Acura TL sedan and Acura RDX), the East Liberty Auto Plant (Civic, later Acura CL), the Anna Engine Plant (four- and two-wheel engines, transmissions, driveshafts, suspension and other major components), and the Marysville Motorcycle Plant (CR250 Elsinore, Gold Wing; motorcycle production ended June 2009). It was an operating automaker and parts manufacturer, not a patent-holding entity.

Litigation posture: HAM is a pure defendant in the tracked data — 0 cases as plaintiff, 1 as defendant — consistent with an operating company targeted by an NPE rather than an assertive licensor. That single suit was filed in the plaintiff-friendly Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas.

Notable case: Innovative Display Technologies LLC v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc. et al., No. 2:14-cv-00222 (E.D. Tex., filed March 13, 2014), with HAM named among the Honda co-defendants. IDT is a patent assertion entity that acquired a portfolio of LED backlight and light-emitting panel patents (inventor Jeffery R. Parker) and filed parallel suits against automakers and electronics firms such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Ford and General Motors; Stanford's NPE Litigation Database classifies it under acquired patents. The dispute concerned display backlight technology in vehicles.

Status note: On April 1, 2021, HAM merged into Honda Development & Manufacturing of America, LLC (HDMA), still headquartered in Marysville, Ohio; HAM's legal name was changed accordingly.