This Day in History 11-05-1895 First automobile patent awarded to Selden On this day, inventor George B. Selden received a patent for his gasoline-powered automobile, first conceived of when he was an infantryman in the American Civil War. After 16 years of delay, United States Patent No. 549,160 was finally issued to Selden for a machine he originally termed a road-locomotive and later would call a road engine. His design resembled a horse-drawn carriage, with high wheels and a buckboard, and was described by Selden as light in weight, easy to control and possessed of sufficient power to overcome any ordinary incline. With the granting of the patent, Selden won a monopoly on the concept of combining an internal combustion engine with a carriage. Every automaker would have to pay Selden and his licensing company a significant percentage of their profits for the right to construct a motor car, even though their automobiles rarely resembled Selden´s designs. In 1903, the newly created Ford Motor Company, which refused to pay royalties to Selden´s licensing company, was sued for infringement on the patent. Thus began one of the most celebrated litigation cases in the history of the automotive industry, ending in 1909 when a New York court upheld the validity of Selden´s patent. Henry Ford and his increasingly powerful company appealed the decision, and in 1911, the New York Court of Appeals again ruled in favor of Selden´s patent, but with a twist: the patent was held to be restricted to the particular outdated construction it described. In 1911, every important automaker used a motor significantly different from that described in Selden´s patent, and major manufacturers like the Ford Motor Company never paid Selden another dime.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 13:02:06 +0000
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