Henry Billings Brown

“ Not only was there no claim of a defective or insufficient specification, none that the patentee had claimed as his own invention more than he had a right to claim as new, none of inadvertence, accident, or mistake, but, four years after the original patent was issued, the patentee attempts to secure a reissue, with claims broadened for the purpose of covering that which is presumed to have been once abandoned to the public. ”

“ Justice Bradley observed that 'since the decision of this case [Moffitt v. Garr] it has been uniformly held that, if a reissue is granted, the patentee has no rights except such as grow out of the reissued patent. He has none under the original. That is extinguished. * * * No damages can be recovered for any acts of infringement committed prior to the reissue. * * * It seems to us equally clear that, as the law stood when that decisio was made, * * * a patent surrendered for reissue was canceled in law as well when the application was rejected as when it was granted. ”

“ St. § 4916, to consider the application upon the bare statement that the patentee desired to surrender his patent and obtain a reissue. The commissioner is authorized to reissue patents in certain specified cases, and, if the petition makes no pretense of setting forth facts entitling the patentee to a reissue, it is exceedingly doubtful whether he obtains any jurisdiction to act at all. ”