Ford Motor Company Legal Office Patent Records

The patent records of the Ford Motor Company Legal Office are divided into five series: Aircraft Patents, Artificial Limbs, Tractor Manufacturing, Magnesium Recovery and Development, and Trademarks. The collection spans from 1905-1951, but the bulk of materials dates between 1930 and 1945.

The patent material concerns a single lawsuit relating to an aircraft patent (Messrs Junker vs. Ford Motor Company), and the three countries involved in the suit: Czechoslovakia, Spain and Germany.

The material covering artificial limbs (one folder) contains blueprints of experimental prosthetics from a single year, 1945.

There is also one folder of material that relates to the manufacture of tractors, primarily in Britain, during the First World War.

The material on magnesium recovery includes blueprints, photographs and drawings of machinery used to obtain magnesium. The material also contains correspondence and drafts of agreements between executives at the Ford Motor Company and Dow Chemical of Midland, Michigan. Reports about the process of magnesium recovery are also included. Of special interest is a map dating from the 1930s detailing Michigan's rich mine deposits.

Finally, the collection contains information about trademark registration and applications relating to Ford Motor Company's products, including the trademark registration of Fordson, Ford's tractor, in foreign countries, and trademark and patent applications of Lincoln in Great Britain.