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Originally Posted by Benz Fan
His thugs changed the faces of a few union supporters back in the Thirtie's, but I digress.
I recall doing some reading on the Selden issue many years ago. One thing that I always wondered about the patent process is the application of the patent protection based on design specifics vs. application of the protection based on design concept. If Selden went so far as to provide automobile patent drawings that included the transmission design, for example, wouldn't the patent protection of the entire horseless carriage concept be negated if a competitor had some material changes to the transmission design of his version of a horseless carriage?
Conversely, would I have had a valid patent infringement claim against Selden/Ford if I had previously patented a concept for a horse-drawn carriage that employed a similar type of frame and had the same number of wheels?
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I do remember that he did indeed submit drawings, but remember, he was an experienced and clever patent attorney. The fact that he did, was his undoing, since he locked his patent into a two cycle engine. I used the example of the transmission, but I don't remember how much detail there was about that part. As I recall, he never even built a car. I remember a picture, but as I recall the picture was more or less bogus and since I was doing this research some 80 years after his patent filings, who knows when the picture was made.
I think his drawings and specs were intentionally vague for obvious reasons.