Monday 9th January 1911

The US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Ford Motor Company was not infringing George Selden’s patent. This landmark decision ended one of the longest and costliest and bitterest lawsuits in US legal history. Selden had been issued with the first US patent for an internal-combustion car in 1903, although he hadn’t actually produced a working model. The Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM) was founded to collect royalties on the Selden patent from all car manufacturers. Soon, every major car producer was paying royalties to ALAM and George Selden, except for Henry Ford who refused to pay. ALAM launched a series of lawsuits against Ford that took 8 years and at least $1 million to resolve. It has been estimated that royalties paid before the patent was held invalid amounted to about $5,800,000.