Stanley Matthews

“ The employment of the paper backing in the stamp used by the appellant, whereby the part to be cut out is prevented from adhering to the head of the barrel, and the arrangement of a part of the stamp so as to indentify the package with that described in the stub, the removal of which destroys the stamp so that it cannot be used again, constitutes the alleged infringement of the first claim of the Locke patent, which covers every stamp within that description. ”

“ So that when the frequency and magnitude of the frauds upon the revenue, committed by the removal of tax-paid stamps from packages on which they had been originally placed by the officer to others surreptitiously substituted for them, or by emptying the packages of their original contents and fraudulently refilling them with spirits on which no tax* had been paid, attracted the general attention of the revenue department, the answer to the problem of prevention was found by immediate inference from the existing regulations, in the adoption of the expedient now in question. ”

“ The strip shown in Fig. 2, I secure in part to the left side of the paper by gumming its remaining portion, upon which are coupons for the units, being dry-gummed on its under side, so that, when the proper number of gallons has been* determined, the officer, upon cutting off the coupon at the figure designating the unit or digital number required, may, by moistening it, instantly, and without cutting or injuring the stamp, apply it to the stamp, while the stub or remaining portion of the slip will correspondingly indicate thereon just what has been so detached and applied to the stamp. ”

“ In a paper revenue stamp for indicating the contents of a cask, and having thereon a number designing the number of gallons or other measure, providing the stamp, and also its stub or check-piece, with corresponding digital numbers, to be punched out to indicate the units, substantially as described. ”

“ Such an increased utility, beyond what had been attained by devices previously in use, in cases of doubt, is usually regarded as determining the question of invention. But in the present case we are not able to give it such effect. No change, it will be observed, was made in the character of the stamp, so far as the relation between the stamp proper and the stub is concerned, nor in the identifying marks which constituted the written and printed matter upon both ”