Car Craze

The development of gasoline cars was not exempt from hindrances that affect its progress as an industry. This was evidently seen in the so-called “Selden Patent Fight” wherein one lawyer, George Selden, designed a gasoline engine similar to one he saw at the Philadelphia Exposition and obtained a broad patent that were taken to apply to all gasoline engines for automobiles. When Selden did not go into the automobile manufacturing business, his patent was taken over by an association of car makers which in turn, licensed other manufacturers to build automobiles under the patent with a payment of royalty.

Henry Ford refused to pay royalties on the automobiles he manufactured as he did not believe that the patent was valid. He was sued by the association but triumphed after winning the case when the US Circuit Court of Appeals recognized the validity of the Selden Patent only as applied to two-stroke engines. Ford and most other US automobile manufacturers were producing four-stroke engines.