Re:Looking for the patent clerk/Einstein's credit (Score 2)

Well, I am not sure I can agree with you. You say:
The concept of special relativity had been in development for several years..

It was not the concept of relativity, it was the mathematics of what would later be called special relativity. The concept of relativity in this theory is mostly if not exclusively due to Einstein, who arrived at it from purely physical considerations. He did not need that mathematics.

As far as GRT and Gauss is concerned... What credit do you think deserves someone who even does not have guts to publish one's ideas. That's precisely what happened to Gauss who never published his idea that the space can be curved because he was afraid to be laughed at...Mach might have some impact on GRT, perhaps even negative. Einstein pursued Mach's ideas, but this turned out to be a blind alley: GRT does not realize the so called Mach principle that Einstein tried to incorporate in GRT. Poincare had nothing of substance to contribute to GRT at all, unlike to the mathematics of SRT. As far as Leibnitz is concerned- I can only guess that his ideas were very vague and certainly of no impact on Einstein.

So much about where the credit is really due...