Henry Billings Brown

“ Stripped of its verbiage, this patent consists simply of a shirt-bosom bound at its edges, and stitched through its binding to the body of the shirt. The custom of binding the cut edges of cloth, either for ornament or to prevent raveling, is almost as old as the art of making garments. ”

“ If bosoms had always been worn before as a separate garment, it is possible that cutting away the front of the shirt, and inserting the bosom, might have involved some slight invention, though it is very doubtful if it would sustain a patent; but as bosoms had long been bound by a folded binding, and, with or without such binding, had been attached to shirts by stitching, it would seem to approximate more closely to invention to make such attachment by a row of stitching which did not, than by stitches which did, pass through such binding. ”

“ In view of the simplicity of this device, we find it impossible to escape the conviction that plaintiffs are laboring under a strong bias of self-interest in asserting that this improvement was 'the result of careful and prolonged study and experiment.' We think this case must be added to the already long list of those reported in the decisions of this court, wherein the patentee has sought to obtain the monopoly of a large manufacture by a trifling deviation from ordinary and accepted methods. ”