George B. Selden was an American patent lawyer and inventor who filed for a patent on an improved road engine in 1879 and was granted it in 1895, one of the earliest United States patents covering an automobile. He used the patent to seek royalties from automobile manufacturers in an eight-year legal battle, winning an initial court victory that Henry Ford overturned on appeal in 1911 on technical grounds. His company shifted to truck production afterward, and he collected several hundred thousand dollars in royalties over his life. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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1. George B. Selden (Wikipedia)
Infobox, birth_date
1846-09-14
Infobox, death_date
1922-01-17
Extract, first sentence
September 14, 1846
Extract, first sentence [death-year]
January 17, 1922
Extract, first sentence [nationality]
American patent lawyer and inventor
View the SourceFrequently Asked Questions
Did George Selden's automobile patent really give him control over the car industry?
No. Ford overturned his patent victory on appeal in 1911.
Selden filed for a patent on an improved road engine in 1879 and was granted it in 1895, one of the earliest United States patents covering an automobile. He used it to seek royalties from automobile manufacturers and won an initial court victory in an eight-year legal battle, but Henry Ford overturned that result on appeal in 1911 on technical grounds. Selden's company then moved into truck production, and he collected several hundred thousand dollars in royalties over his life.
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