Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > Harding, George

George Harding is known as the greatest U.S. patent attorney of the late nineteenth century.

Harding was born in Philadelphia on October 26, 1827. He was the son of Jesper Harding, publisher of the Pennsylvania Inquirer. Harding attended public schools and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1846. After graduating, he worked as an intern for John Cadwalader, who later became a U.S. district judge, before starting his own law practice.

Harding was admitted to the bar in 1849, and elected secretary of the Law Academy of Philadelphia the same year. Two years later he assisted EDWIN M. STANTON in Pennsylvania v. Wheeling & Belmont Bridge Co., 54 U.S. (13 How.) 518, 14 L. Ed. 249 (1852), before the Supreme Court. With this case he began to gain fame as a patent attorney.

Harding successfully represented Samuel F. Morse in lengthy...