George Baldwin Selden was an American patent lawyer and inventor from New York who was granted a United States patent covering an automobile design in 1895, one of the earliest patents issued in America for a self-propelled, internal combustion powered road vehicle. His training and career as a patent attorney gave him a close, technical familiarity with the mechanical claims needed to define and protect an invention of this kind, at a time when the American automobile industry itself barely existed. He is remembered chiefly through that one patent, which carried his name into the earliest institutional history of the American car industry even though he built comparatively little as a manufacturer himself. Selden was born on September 14, 1846 and died on January 17, 1922, having spent a career combining legal practice with hands on invention.
Facts
FAQs
Did George Selden's automobile patent really give him control of the American car industry?
The patent was upheld as valid in 1911 but not infringed by Ford, so it never gave Selden control of the industry.
Not in the end. Selden filed his patent application for the automobile in 1879, although Britannica notes he did not build a working vehicle at that time. The patent was kept pending for 16 years before it was granted in 1895. The Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers later claimed it as a basic patent covering gasoline-powered automobiles, which led to a legal battle with Henry Ford. In 1911 the courts held the patent valid but not infringed by Ford, so it did not give Selden or the association a monopoly over the industry.
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Source George B. Selden (Wikipedia)Lead sentence, nationalityQuote, Lead sentence, nationality
was an American patent lawyer and inventor from New York
Sources
1. George B. Selden (Wikipedia)
Lead sentence, birth date
September 14, 1846
Lead sentence, death date
January 17, 1922
Lead sentence, nationality
was an American patent lawyer and inventor from New York
In Group: Automotive Inventors, Lead sentence
George Baldwin Selden (September 14, 1846, January 17, 1922) was an American patent lawyer and inventor from New York who was granted a U.S.
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