equipment founded 1947 ; 69 years ago 1947 gwinner north dakota u.s. headquarters west fargo north dakota products specialized excavators loaders engines website http www.bobcat.com a bobcat compact excavator bobcat company is an american based manufacturer of farm and construction equipment part of doosan group of south korea . its american headquarters is in west fargo north dakota usa formerly in gwinner north dakota . its european headquarters is in waterloo belgium . it was a subsidiary of the ingersoll rand company from 1995 until july 2007 when it was sold for us 4.9 billion to doosan infracore . 1 the company sells skid steer loaders compact excavators compact utility vehicles compact tractors and other small hydraulic equipment under the bobcat brand name . it is one of the few major manufacturing companies operating in north dakota . 2 history edit in the 1950s louis and cyril keller operated keller welding and repair near rothsay minnesota . in 1956 eddie velo a turkey farmer from the area described to the kellers a need for a machine small enough to maneuver inside a pole barn and light enough to operate on its upper level . the brothers worked out a small three wheeled design with a belt driven transmission and delivered it to velo on february 4 1957 . 3 velo allowed the kellers full access to his operations . after the kellers learned of drawbacks to the belt driven transmission they developed and patented a clutch based transmission system in 1958 which was more robust . the new transmission became the basis of the melroe m60 loader . their uncle an equipment dealer for the melroe manufacturing company based in gwinner nd advocated for melroe to market the machines resulting in melroe inviting the kellers to exhibit at the 1958 minnesota state fair . melroe introduced the four wheeled m400 model skid steer loader in 1960 and began using bobcat as a trade name for such products in 1962 on the 440 model loader . les melroe and advertising agent lynn bickett settled on the bobcat name while exchanging name ideas during a drive between minneapolis and gwinner . bickett and sylvan melroe developed the tough quick and agile slogan used in advertising the early loaders . 4 melroe was purchased by clark equipment company in 1969 and then by ingersoll rand in 1995 . doosan currently owns clark equipment company which does business as bobcat company . the company was recognized by hermann simon as a role model for other small to medium sized businesses in his book hidden champions . when bobcat company owns worldwide trademark registrations for its bobcat name . 5 bobcat only accurately refers to equipment manufactured by bobcat company . 6 references edit korean firm buys bobcat diggers . bbc . 2007 07 30 . retrieved 2007 07 30 . hermann simon mentioned this company in his correspondent book as an example of a hidden champion simon hermann hidden champions of the 21st century success strategies of unknown world market leaders . london springer 2009 . isbn 978 0 387 98147 5 . keller joe . how the bobcat skid steer loader came to be . retrieved 23 december 2011 . karolevitz robert 1968 . e.g. inventor by necessity . aberdeen sd north plains press . p. 135 . representative examples of u.s. trademark registrations for the bobcat mark include nos. 890 034 670 566 and 1 604 367 . copies of the registration certificates and information on these registrations are accessible by their registration number through the u.s. patent and trademark office s trademark electronic search system available at http www.uspto.gov trademarks index.jsp . representative examples of bobcat trademark registrations outside the united states include australian registration nos. 707 659 and 198 207 and european community registration no. 29 371 . information on these registrations can be accessed through the countries trademark offices australia http www.ipaustralia.gov.au trademarks search index.shtml and european community http oami.europa.eu ows rw pages qplus databases searchctm.en.do . the associated press stylebook specifically recognizes bobcat as a trademark for a brand of skid steer loaders excavators and backhoes . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to bobcat vehicles . bobcat company website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bobcat company & oldid 716085143 categories companies based in fargo moorheadagricultural machinery manufacturersconstruction equipment manufacturersengineering vehicleswest fargo north dakotahidden categories vague or ambiguous time from december 2010commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page 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