An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on or similar to the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15, its predecessor, was a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design and featured selective fire. ArmaLite sold the patent and trademarks to Colt's Manufacturing Company in 1959, resulting in the Colt AR-15, which removed the selective fire feature. After most of the patents for the Colt AR-15 expired in 1977, many firearm manufacturers began to produce copies of the Colt AR-15 under various names. While the patents are expired, Colt retained the trademark of the AR-15 name and is the sole manufacturer able to label their firearms as AR-15.