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From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen)
Newsgroups: alt.suit.att-bsdi,comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: UNIGRAM's article on the USL-BSDI suit
Message-ID: <1992Aug11.052442.1318@spectrum.CMC.COM>
Date: 11 Aug 92 05:24:42 GMT
References: <KANDALL.92Aug5175428@globalize.nsg.sgi.com> <15s8ulINNgrc@agate.berkeley.edu> <1992Aug10.180623.17391@sinix.UUCP>
Organization: CMC Network Systems (Rockwell DCD), Santa Barbara, CA, USA
Lines: 50
In article <15s8ulINNgrc@agate.berkeley.edu>
faustus@ygdrasil.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Wayne A. Christopher) writes:
>>remotely based on their work for the rest of time. How many car
>>companies do you think pay royalties to the descendants of Henry Ford?
In article <1992Aug10.180623.17391@sinix.UUCP>
tim@athen.xsmuc.mchp.sni.de (Tim Bissell) writes:
>What *do* they teach in US schools? Every USan I have met is convinced
>that Henry Ford invented the motor car. Karl Benz (Mercedes-Benz; heard of
>them?) built and sold petrol-engined motor cars for *twenty* years before
>Ford applied mass production techniques to cars. Tens of companies were
>building cars before Ford came along.
In the late 1870s, George Selden, a lawyer/inventor specializing in
patents, heard about the development of the automobile in Europe. He
realized that it was a product of the future, and "set his mind to
working out the precise legal definition and wording of a patent that
would give him the sole right to license and charge royalties on future
automobile developments in America." Some twenty years later, with the
auto industry beginning to show signs of life, he set up a partnership
with a few wealthy Wall Street sharks and began asserting his "rights"
with automakers. To his surprise, even the five biggest car
manufacturers agreed to pay him royalties rather than go to court.
By 1903, this royalty-paying alliance of carmakers had officially
become the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM).
Henry Ford, then a fledgling automaker, applied for membership ...
and was refused. His reaction: "Let them try to put me out of business!"
He took out ads telling his dealers that "the Selden patent does not
cover any practicable machine", and dared Selden's group to take him to
court. They did.
Ford and the ALAM battled it out for six years. Then in 1909, a Federal
judge determined that Selden's patent was valid; Selden and his allies
legally owned ALL rights to the car. Immediately, carmakers that had
held off on joining the ALAM - including the newly formed General Motors
- fell into line to pay rpyalties.
The ALAM magnanimously offered to settle cheaply with Ford, but Henry
fought on. "There will be no let up in this legal fight", he announced
angrily. Finally, on January 9, 1911, a Federal Court of Appeals ruled
in Ford's favor. Selden and his cronies were forced to give up; the ALAM
was never heard from again.
-- from Uncle John's Second Bathroom Reader - St Martin's Press 1989.
I thought there might be some lesson in this tale.
--
/ Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM
CMC (Rockwell Digital Systems) Telephone: +1-805-968-4262
Santa Barbara, CA 93117-5503 TeleFAX: +1-805-968-8256