Letters patent

“ That in all cases where an article is made or vended by any person under the protection of letters-patent, it shall be the duty of such person to give sufficient notice to the public that said article is so patented, either by fixing thereon the word patented, together with the day and year the patent was granted ”

“ It follows that the only invention or patent in which claimant appears to have any interest is that known as the 'round-top' box, which claimant holds by authority of the assignment of January 6, 1881, for which letters patent were never issued until 1891,-17 years after Strong's contract with the government had expired. ”

“ Issues of the kind cannot be intelligently determined without a clear understanding of the nature and scope of the invention secured by the letters-patent, as it is the patented invention which it is alleged the respondent has infringed, and in order to such an understanding it becomes necessary, as a preliminary step in the investigation, to construe and define the claims of the patent, as the most efficient means of ascertaining the precise nature and extent of the inquiry involved in the respective issues presented in the pleadings. ”

“ Persons seeking redress for the unlawful use of letters patent, in which they have an interest, are obliged to allege and prove that they, or those under whom they claim, are the original and first inventors of the improvement embodied in the letters patent on which the suit is founded, and that the same have been infringed by the party against whom the suit is brought. ”

“ In 1718 he obtained a patent (No. 422) for 'a new invention of three sorts of engines never before made or used in Great Britaine, one to winde the finest raw silk, another to spin, and the other to twist the finest Italian raw silk into organzine in great perfection, which was never before done in this country.' A specification of the patent was duly enrolled, in conformity with the conditions of the letters patent, in the petty bag office, but the roll was lost, and was only discovered in 1867, when the specification was printed by the commissioners of patents for the first time. ”

“ Patentees acquire, by virtue of their letters patent, if properly granted and in due form, the full and exclusive right and liberty of making, using, and vending to others to be used, their respective inventions for the term of years allowed by law at the time when the letters patent were issued. ”

“ It is for the process or act of stamping letters with a post-mark and cancelling the postage-stamp at one and the same blow or operation of the instrument, in the manner and by the means described and set forth. Perhaps this claim amounts to no more than a claim to the exclusive use of the patented instrument or device. If it is anything more, it is for a different invention from that described in the original patent. If it is not for anything more, the question is brought back to the instrument or device itself which forms the subject of the patent, and which has been already considered. ”

“ Whereas I, Richard Doe, of Philadelphia, County of Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful improvements inp. 23 Telegraph Keys, for which I have obtained Letters Patent of the United States, bearing date January 1, 1901, and number 000,000, and whereas John Roe, of Camden, County of Camden, and State of New Jersey, is desirous of obtaining an interest in the net profits arising from the sale or working of the said invention covered by the said Letters Patent. ”

“ Mr. S. has incorporated it into the specification for the patent. Please, therefore, not to proceed with the type or portrule as now constructed: I will see you on my return and explain it in season for you to get one ready for us.
"I find it a most arduous and tedious process to adjust the specification. I have been engaged steadily for three days with Mr. S., and have not yet got half through, but there is one consolation, when done it will be well done. The drawings, I find on enquiry, would cost you from forty to fifty dollars if procured from the draughtsman about the Patent Office. ”

“ Undoubted owners of the title to the patent the plaintiffs, on the twenty-third of November, 1865, instituted this suit, and the charge is that the defendants, on the second of November of the previous year, and on divers other days and times between that day and the commencement of the suit, infringed the exclusive right to the invention vested in the plaintiffs, by constructing and using ten machines for bending wood in imitation of the plaintiffs' invention, and in violation of the exclusive right secured to them in their letters patent. ”

“ It is not a composition of matter, or a manufacture, or a machine. It is the application of a known element or power of nature, to a new and useful purpose by means of various processes, instruments and devices, and if patentable at all, it must come within the category of 'a new and useful art.' It is as much entitled to this denomination as the original art of printing itself. The name givento it in the patent is generally the act of the commissioner, and in this, as in many other cases, a wrong one. The true nature of the invention must be sought in the specification. ”

“ Nothing is better settled in the law of patents than that the patentee may claim the whole or only a part of his invention, and that, if he only describe and claim a part, he is presumed to have abandoned the residue to the public. The object of the patent law in requiring the patentee to 'particularly point out and distinctly claim the part, improvement, or combination which he claims as his invention or discovery' is not only to secure to him all to which he is entitled, but to apprise the public of what is still open to them. ”

“ The patents under consideration expressly declare, for the most part, what the patentee claims; generally referring, it is true, to the specification as embodying the substantial form of the invention. Such a reference is proper if it does not introduce confusion and uncertainty, and is often necessary for restraining the too great generality, or enlarging the literal narrowness of the claim.
These remarks apply to reissue 1038, which we are now considering. We regard it as sufficiently explicit; and we think the patent is valid. ”

“ But this, we think, does not meet the objection, which, more precisely stated, is that the machine and work holder patents, fairly read, do not embrace a patent for the dominating new result, the process of the reissue patent, but are patents for a particular combination of mechanical means, useful, as is that of petitioner, in availing of the process, but which, as we have said, does not involve invention. ”

“ The attributes of novelty and utility being possessed in due degree by an invention, it remains to put in motion the machinery for its protection. The Patents Act 1907, re-enacting former provisions, requires an application to be made in a prescribed form (the forms and stamps are on sale at all postal money order offices in the United Kingdom) , and left at or sent by post to the patent office in the prescribed manner. The application must contain a declaration that the applicant is the true and first inventor, and it must be accompanied by either a provisional or complete specification. ”

“ Effective support to the proposition that nothing but invention or discovery will entitle an applicant to a patent is also found in the reported decisions of the circuit courts, as appears from the following citations. Judge Story held, many years ago, that the mere application of an old process, machine, or device to a new use was not patentable,-that there must be some new process or some new machinery to produce the result, in order that the supposed inventor may properly have a patent for the alleged improvement. ”

“ The language of the act of 1836, under which these patents were drawn, is that before any inventor shall receive a patent for his invention or discovery he shall deliver a description thereof, and of the manner and process of making, constructing, using, and compounding the same, in such full, clear, and exact terms as to enable a person skilled in the art to reproduce it ”

“ And yet the great majority of patents are for improvements in old and well-known devices, or on patented inventions. Changes in the construction of an old machine which increase its usefulness are patentable. Seymour v. Osborne, 11 Wall. 516. So, a new combination of known devices, whereby the effectiveness of a machine is increased, may be the subject of a patent. ”

“ It is undoubtedly true, and all the cases agree, that the mere function or effect of the operation of a machine cannot be the subject-matter of a lawful patent. But it does not follow that a method of doing a thing, so clearly indicated that those skilled in the art can avail themselves of mechanism to carry it into operation, is not the subject-matter of a valid patent. ”

“ The language of the statute is, 'first patented, or caused to be patented, in a foreign country.' This, by its terms, includes American citizens as well as foreigners who first take out a patent abroad. The term 'patented' may well be construed as applying to foreigners obtaining patents in their own country, and the phrase, 'caused to be patented,' to such persons, not citizens of the same country, including Americans, as should cause their inventions to be introduced or patented there. ”

“ They also prepare and file caveats, procure design patents, trade marks, and re-issues, attend to rejected cases (prepared by the inventor or other attorneys) , procure copyrights, attend to interferences, give written opinions on matters of infringement, furnish copies of patent business, both in this and in foreign countries.
A special notice is made in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN of all inventions patented through this agency, with the name and residence of the patentee. Patents are often sold, in part or whole, to persons attracted to the invention by such notice. ”

“ I have some of those filters. The manufacturer of these things, who had no Patent, came to me to consult me upon the subject. I at once saw how the case stood, having regard to the specification of the Liverpool patentee, that he (the latter) had taken out a Patent for that which another man had before done, so exactly that the words of the specification and the drawings fitted the first man’s invention, which was without a Patent, therefore his Patent would have been null and void. ”

“ Where the utility is proved to exist in any degree, a sufficiency of invention to support the patent must be presumed.' We do not say the single fact that a device has gone into general use, and has displaced other devices which had previously been employed for analogous uses, establishes in all cases that the later device involves a patentable invention. ”

“ Patents for a machine will not be sustained if the claim is for a result, the established rule being that the invention, if any, within the meaning of the Patent Act, consists in the means or apparatus by which the result is obtained, and not merely in the mode of operation, independent of the mechanical devices employed ”

“ Is it the fact that Patents are taken out in this country for processes which are in operation abroad, but which have not been previously introduced into this country?—Certainly. A process in actual operation abroad, which has not been published in this country, can be made the subject of a Patent. ”

“ Some inventors use printed copies of their patents instead of circulars, but, while they fully set forth the invention in a technical way, it cannot be said that in all cases it is advisable to send copies of the patent until called for. Many parties who become interested in patents are not familiar with mechanical drawings and technical specifications, and very often do not get a very favorable impression from a copy of the patent ”