A cautionary tale
Today we went to the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. In the American history hall, they had a small exhibit about transportation, including a license badge for cars produced under the Selden automobile patent. This patent was taken out in 1895 by George Selden, and it covered the automobile. He never built a working model, and he had no intention of going into the automobile manufacturing business, but he knew other people would be in years to come. So he got this patent and then proceeded to shake down the car makers for license fees. For some years, they paid, until Henry Ford challenged it in court. In the end, the patent was ruled invalid, since it was basically just a form of legal extortion. But it’s a lot like the current SCO case against Linux.
Later on, we were in a different part of the museum, and I saw a display of a stuffed hawk that, sadly, didn’t look very lifelike. The cobwebs sort of gave it away.
Still, it was a fun day, and Lucinda had fun. Pictures in her photo album.
