Bauer & Cie v. O'Donnell

Citations

• 229 U.S. 1
• 33 S. Ct. 616
• 57 L. Ed. 1041
• 1913 U.S. LEXIS 2417

Syllabus

<p>The right to make, use and sell an invented article existed without, and before, the passage of the patent law; the act secured to the inventor the exclusive right to make, use and vend the thing patented.</p> <p>While the patent'law should be fairly and liberally construed to effect the purpose of Congress to encourage useful invention, the rights and privileges which it bestows should not be extended by judicial construction beyond what Congress intended.</p> <p>In framing the patent act and defining the rights and privileges of patentees thereunder Congress did not use technical or occult phrases, but in simple terms gave the patentee the exelusivé'right to make,, use and vend his invention for a definite term of years.</p> <p>A patentee may not by notice limit the price at which future retail sales of the patented article may be made, such article being in the hands of a retailer by purchase from a jobber who has paid to the agent of the patentee the full price asked for the article sold, Henry v. Dick Co.. 224 TJ. S. 1, distinguished.</p> <p>The patent law differs from the copyright law in that it not only confers the right to make and sell, but also the exclusive right to use the subject-matter of the patent.</p> <p>The words “vend” and “vending” as Used in § 4952, Rev. Stat., in regard to the copyright protection accorded authors and as used in § 4884, Rev. Stat., in regard to the protection accorded inventors for their patented articles, are substantially the same, and the protection intended to be secured to authors and inventors is substantially identical.</p> <p>While Bobbs-Merrill Co.v. Straus, 210 U. S. 339, recognized that there are differences between the copyright statute and the patent statute, and disclaimed then deciding the effect of the word “vending” as used in the latter, thjs court now decides that the terms used in regard to the protection accorded by both statutes in regard to the exclusive right to sell are to all intents the same.</p>