I "stole" a patent

[protege]

Guy made his living blackmailing automobile manufacturers by threatening to sue them for violating a patent he was granted in 1895, which turned out not to be for a manufacturable automobile. He did a land-office business until Henry Ford called his bluff, and the resulting lawsuit vacated his patent...

Yep, Ford appealed, and got the patent tossed out because the engine used in Selden's patent drawings was a Brayton cycle...not the Otto cycle (still used today) that Ford and others used. Still, the patent fiasco was amusing, since Selden got away with being able to make a mint from someone else's work. No wonder then, that he's seen as nothing more than a patent troll. That's why I didn't bother mentioning him