Saturday 2nd July 1904

Buick, Studebaker, and Worthington joined the The Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM) to comply with Selden patent rights. Back in 1878, George B. Selden successfully developed a smaller version of the mammoth internal combustion engine invented by George Brayton which had been displayed at the 1976 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Selden filed for a patent on May 8, 1879. His application included not only the engine but also its use in a 4-wheeled car. He then filed a series of amendments to his application stretching out the legal process and resulting in a delay of 16 years before the patent US patent 549160 was granted on November 5, 1895. Shortly thereafter the fledgling American auto industry began its earliest efforts and George Selden, despite never having gone into production with a working model of an automobile, had a credible claim to having patented an automobile in 1895. He was initially successful, negotiating a 0.75% royalty on all cars sold by the ALAM, but later lost in a landmark trial filed by Henry Ford. Ford won his case based on an argument that the engine used in automobiles was not based on George Brayton’s engine but one based on the Otto engine.