OT -Art, anyone, a U. S. Patent question?

Topics Last Day Last Week Tree View    Getting Started Formatting Troubleshooting Program Credits    New Messages Keyword Search Contact Moderators Edit Profile Administration
Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2014: OT -Art, anyone, a U. S. Patent question?
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Rob Heyen on Friday, June 13, 2014 - 04:38 am:

Ed Huff was listed as the "Assignor" (to Henry Ford) and inventor of this magneto (Electrical Igniting Apparatus). Does this mean Henry Ford "owned" the rights to the magneto?



Thank you,

Rob


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George_Cherry Hill NJ on Friday, June 13, 2014 - 04:50 am:

yes...


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Rob Heyen on Friday, June 13, 2014 - 04:57 am:

George,

Your up early (or late). Why wouldn't Ford Motor Company be the assignee? This magneto was built and sold by Holley Brothers. Would Henry Ford have collected royalties of some type?

Thank you,

Rob


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George_Cherry Hill NJ on Friday, June 13, 2014 - 05:08 am:

I'm not sure when it became vogue for a 'corp' to actually own the patent.

As to what Henry could do once he was the 'assignee', it all depends, as the 'owner' he could have set his own fee schedule, paid up license or royalty, licensing schedule, or with-holding of manufacture if he wanted.

Neither early or late for me...lol.....is 5 PM here...2 more weeks and summer break! I did turn in my papers planning on taking retirement...they laughed...then they gave them back :-)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Rob Heyen on Friday, June 13, 2014 - 05:17 am:

George,

Thank you again. How long will you be back?

This is interesting. Ford Motor Company spent the equivalent of $50,000 in 1905 under the heading "Magneto" (1905 fiscal year audit). I assume this was payment for work by Ed Huff and materials for this magneto.

I'm putting some financial pieces together and Henry Ford seems to make out quite well in a couple of business dealings at this time. In this case, possibly FMC paid for the development of this mag and HF appears to own the rights to it?

Rob


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George_Cherry Hill NJ on Friday, June 13, 2014 - 06:00 am:

I'll be home for the summer and until sometime in October...takes me that long to catch up and get one or another or a few of the T's ready for the season...haha...then I go for a ride and drain them :-(

Hard to tell what transpired...Spider apparently worked for Henry (or not?) during this period. Spider got the patent. It took almost 3 years for the patent to issue which to my way usually means the application had issues with the examiner and was rejected a bunch before accepted. How unique Spider type differed from generic at the time, I don't know, the inet won't let me get a clean copy from here.

But I wouldn't put it past Henry to let the company to pay the development costs for a magneto where he at the time only has a 25% interest (?) in the actual company, yet by offering Spider 'something' he then owned it and could license it directly? Wills apparently took royalty payments for personal patents from FMC while he was an employee.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Rob Heyen on Friday, June 13, 2014 - 06:31 am:

George,

I'm not sure what the employment arrangement was at the time of the application. Huff did have his own shop, and was marketing coils independent of Ford. I think at that point they may have been collaborators with Huff contracted by Ford on projects. Maybe someone will fill in those blanks.

Thank you,

Rob


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By A. J. "Art" Bell on Friday, June 13, 2014 - 09:35 am:

Rob
Ford history and or the various transactions where patents
change ownership are definitely not my strong point.
However . . .

I would guess that Henry would engage or commission Ed Huff
to design a specific device for Ford, and if testing proved it’s worth
Huff would transfer the patent’s ownership at some pre negotiated
price to Ford via assignment when filing for the original patent.
Once assigned, Ford could license it to others at will.
If a patent covered something designed in house by a Ford employee,
the patent would likely be applied for in Henry’s or Ford Motor Co name.

Here is a link to some of Huff’s patents . . .

http://tinyurl.com/m8xy2hw

Regards
Art


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Rob Heyen on Friday, June 13, 2014 - 10:04 am:

Art,

As always, thank you for the great link and research. I'm going to start another link about this particular patent, and a letter from George Holley to Henry Ford regarding the magneto. However, I wanted to understand how "Assignor" designation worked.

Thank you again (and George) for the great information,

Rob


Posting is currently disabled in this topic. Contact your discussion moderator for more information.
Topics Last Day Last Week Tree View    Getting Started Formatting Troubleshooting Program Credits    New Messages Keyword Search Contact Moderators Edit Profile Administration