Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ This band is attached to spool or spindle which fits into the machine. [1] Any one may make and sell the gelatine composition but the ground of recovery was that the defendant made and sold bands of sizes fitted for use in the plaintiff's machines and attached them to spindles, with intent that they should be so used. The main question in whether purchasers of these machines have a right to replace the gelatine bands from any source that they choose. If they have that right the defendant in selling to them does no wrong. ”

“ The respondent owns a patent for improvements in multiple copying machines, one element of which is a band of gelatine to which is transferred the print to be multiplied and which yields copies up to about a hundred. ”

“ The machine lasts indefinitely, the bands are exhausted after a limited use and manifestly must be replaced. 9 How. 126, 13 L. Ed. 66. The machine is costly, the bands are a cheap and common article of commerce. In Wilson v. Simpson, the purchaser was held free to replace the cutter knives that were the ultimate tool of the invention. The present case seems to us stronger in favor of the defendant. The gelatine probably has to be replaced at least as frequently as the cutter knives and would seem to be less distinctively appropriated to the machine. ”