Posted by don b on October 09, 2007 at 15:50:33 [URL] [DELETE] :
In Reply to: Harry Ferguson Patent Application - 1939 Tractor posted by Ed Gooding (VA) on August 31, 2007 at 08:51:01:
Guy's I sent the above patents to Mr. Brock,this is his reply: don b
Having been in charge of the design of the 9N tractor, I have previously indicated that Henry Ford was not interested in patent applications as he felt that usually by comprehensive research patent applications usually find prior art. In England Ferguson took out patent on basic three point hitch developed by his employee Willie Sands. This is legal in England. Ferguson asked my mentor Henry Ford if he could take out patents covering designs by Ford engineers as Ford was not concerned about patent security. This was done and the patents designed by my Ford staff were taken out by Ferguson. Certain patents such as the transmission show Lawrence Sheldrick Ford's chief engineer. It happens that this was my design. Ferguson lawsuit relating to charges of patent infringement resulted in Ford searching patent archives for many months and finding prior art that would have invalidated all of the patents. The suit was settled and as a result the patents were never litigated. This permitted Ferguson and Ford using designs without the rest of the industry adopting until the patents expired. When I left Ford and took charge of John Deere tractor design it was possible to advance the state of the art and advance Deere to its leadership role.
You may want to share this information to those who want to know the rest of the story.
Harold Brock
P.S. My granddaughter is relocating to a small farm environment and will need a utility tractor such as an 8N. Do you have a suggestion whereby I could obtain such a vehicle in good condition?
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