1929 – In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opens to the public.

1916 – Jeannette Rankin is the first woman elected to the United States Congress.

1893 – Women's Suffrage: Women in the U.S. state of Colorado are granted the right to vote, the second state to do so.

1962 – Apartheid: The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.

1913 – Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

 black321 wrote: 

Kudos to you for raising the topic, it's really a fascinating one. From the perspective of people like Henry Ford and others actually trying to make and sell autos, Selden and the trust that was trying to enforce his patent undoubtedly seemed like a shady crew of opportunistic scammers (what would today be called patent trolls by those on the West coast), because they weren't engaged in ongoing manufacturing efforts.

Wrangling over patent rights is as old as the patent system itself. If you read the story of Selden's patent that I provided a link to, you will notice the name of one Colonel Albert A. Pope, who founded the Columbia Bicycle Company. Colonel Pope was intimately familiar with the idea of owning dominating patents in order to extract licensing fees from competitors and allow for higher prices on products.

Bicycle Patent Wars part 1

Bicycle Patent Wars part 2

Bicycle Patent Wars part 3

 Manbird wrote: 
Can't get anything by that dude.

 black321 wrote: 
Nice try.

 aflanigan wrote:  i stand corrected!

 black321 wrote: 
Nice try, but no.

Selden actually was an inventor; by 1878 he had made a working prototype of a Brayton Cycle engine similar to the one he had seen at the 1876 Centennial exposition in Philadelphia (this was fifteen years before the Duryea brothers demonstrated a working vehicle using an Otto cycle engine in Springfield, MA). He applied for a patent the following year, in 1879, eight years before the public introduction of Benz' Patent Motorwagen.

from Wikipedia:


Clearly, he didn't notice other people's inventive work and decide to copy their work and patent it as his own; he never would have been eligible for a patent had he done this.

It's impossible to say with complete certainty if the 16 year delay in the issuance of his patent (Nov. 1895) was a calculated delay, or unintentional. Most of what I have read on the subject leans strongly towards Selden knowing what he was doing, although he protested that much of the delay was caused by his trying to line up capital investors. Regardless, it positioned him well, since the 17 year term of his patent, which was issued in 1895, covered the period where manufacturing of automobiles finally took off. But the story of how his patent ended up in the hands of a coalition or trust seeking to extract royalties from various auto manufacturers is a fascinating and improbable one (see the link below).

The finding of the appellate court in favor of Ford does not appear to be based on Selden's patent being "too broad", or invalid, but rather on finding that his patent only covered vehicles using Brayton Cycle engines. Otto Cycle engines of the type Ford was using in his products were not deemed to be covered by the scope of Selden's patent.

Lots of information about Selden's patent and the legal battles HERE

 Red_Dragon wrote: 




On this day in 1895, a patent was issued to George B. Selden. It was the kind of patent mere mortals could only dream of. It ranked at or above those granted for the telephone or the electric light. What was it that Selden had invented that was so great - - it was the automobile - - only Selden didn't invent it.
Selden was a clever chap who had noticed the products being produced by the Duryea Brothers and Ransom Olds, in the preceding two decades. He had even read of the work of Karl Benz in Europe.
Since he was a patent attorney, he devised a broad based patent to cover all future automobiles. As the 1900's began, autos began to sell. Selden grabbed some Wall Street buddies and began to sue the early producers. Each one caved and Selden's Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers began to get a royalty from everybody.
In 1903, a guy named Henry Ford applied for membership. Hoping to up the ante, they turned Ford down. Ford (my hero - - he once said the role of your body is to carry your brain around) choose to keep making cars. For six years, they fought in Federal Court. Then a judge said Selden's patent was valid. The effect was electric. Everybody, including GM, decided to pay. Selden and the Wall Street types, sensing billions, magnanimously offered to let Mr. Ford pay at the old rate.
Ford told them where to place their offer and took them to Appeals Court, claiming the patent was too broad and counterclaiming they owned him and other damages. Two years later a judge with a sense of humor and a way with words held that Ford was right. Knowing when to cut and run (and save damages), the Selden/Wall Street Crowd puppied up. The automobile business was wide open and Ford became a multi-billionaire.

1895 – George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.

1872 – Women's suffrage in the United States: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time, and is later fined $100.

 Red_Dragon wrote: 

Actually, NSC Intelligence Directive 9 was primarily a rebranding/renaming of what was first constituted in 1949 as the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA). The NSA has its roots even farther back than this, going all the way back to an organization officially entitled M.I. 8, and known as the American Black Chamber:

The Many Lives of Herbert O. Yardley

1994 – San Francisco: First conference that focuses exclusively on the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web.

1952 – The United States government establishes the National Security Agency, or NSA.

1896 – A picture showing the bare breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time.

1848 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with the Boston University School of Medicine), opens.

1604 – William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.

1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.