Nathan Clifford

“ Enough has already been remarked to show that all the principal claims of the original patent recognize the chamber or tunnel and its appendages as one of the primary ingredients of the patented invention, and it is absolulely certain that the specification of that patent contains neither suggestion, indication, nor intimation that the original patentee made any other invention to accomplish the described functions than the one which includes the whole four described ingredients. ”

“ Questions of the kind usually arise in comparing the machine of the defendant in a suit for infringement with that of the plaintiff, and the rule is that if the defendant omits entirely one of the ingredients of the plaintiff's combination, without substituting any other, he does not infringe, and if he substitutes another in the place of the one omitted, which is new or which performs a substantially different function, or even if it is old but was not known at the date of the plaintiff's patent as a proper substitute for the omitted ingredient, he does not infringe. ”

“ Invalid and inoperative patents may be surrendered and reissued for the same invention, but Congress never intended that a patent which was valid and operative should be reissued merely to afford the patentee an opportunity to expand the exclusive privileges which it secures, to enable him to suppress subsequent improvements which do not conflict with the invention described in the surrendered patent. ”

“ A party patenting a machine may introduce ingenious and new devices which may be better than any other for the purpose, but some of which could be supplied by old devices, if he patents the machine and the combination containing his new devices, patents only a combinating. ”

“ Three or more important propositions of patent law are involved in the exceptions covered by the assignment of errors, which it becomes important to restate with some care, because neither the prayers for instructions, nor the rulings of the court in refusing the same, nor the instructions given, nor the assignment of errors are in every respect free from ambiguity. ”

“ That it is hinged to the upper part of the delivery aperture of the chamber and that it is connected with an eccentric by means of a cord and bell-crank passing over a pulley, so that each revolution of the eccentric carries the hood up and down to direct the discharge of the fibres and to distribute the same on to the cone, giving a greater thickness in the parts of the hat which form the brim and edge than on the top and crown, and he suggests the means to be employed by the manufacturer when it is desired still further to diversify the distribution of the fibres. ”

“ Material matters are left out of the specification when compared with the original, and it is beyond dispute that new features are introduced in the description of the devices to be employed in guiding the fibres of the fur when taken from the feeding mechanism by the rotating brush or picker. They are picked and thrown towards the cone as in the other specification, in which it has already appeared that the representation is that they are guided and directed in the manner and for the purpose specified by the chamber and its appendages. ”

“ Wells, the plaintiff, patented in the reissue, which is the foundation of this suit, has, for reasons doubtless sufficient to her, divided the claim of the specification into several parts, and she has done so apparently under the idea that if she dealt with the machine as a unit, as an aggregate, the invention might be appropriated with impunity by a party who used a portion of its effective, original, and useful parts, leaving out some others. ”

“ The current of air can be regulated by means of the registers S, which are within the cone N, the lower one of which can be turned on shaft R, and serves to open or close the apertures of the upper disk so as to produce a current of air of the desired strength. ”

“ Just the same considerations are involved in the second proposition, which, therefore, requires no further discussion, as it is fully maintained by the reasons given in support of the first proposition. ”