Brammer v. Schroeder

Citations

• 106 F. 918
• 46 C.C.A. 41
• 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 3639

Syllabus

<p>1. Primary and Secondary Patents — Application of Doctrine of Mechanical Equivalents.</p> <p>One who invents and secures a patent for a machine or combination which first performs a useful function is protected thereby against all machines or combinations which perform the same function by equivalent mechanical devices; but one who merely malíes and secures a patent for a slight improvement on an old device or combination, which performs the same function before as after the improvement, is protected against those only who use the very device or improvement he describes and claims, or colorable evasions of it.</p> <p>2. Mechanical Equivalents — Interpretation.</p> <p>The term “mechanical equivalent,” when applied to the interpretation of a pioneer patent, has a broad and generous signification; but when it is applied to a slight and almost immaterial improvement in the progress of an art it has a very narrow and limited meaning, while in its application to all that great mass of inventions which falls between the two extremes its significance is proportioned to the character of the advance or invention under consideration, and is so interpreted by the courts as to protect the inventor against piracy an'd the public against unauthorized monopoly.</p> <p>3. Combination Patents — Law of Mechanical Equivalents Has Same Application'as to Other Patents.</p> <p>■The doctrine of ihechanical equivalents is governed by the same rules and has the same application in a case in which the infringement of a patent for a combination is in question as in cases where the issues are over the infringement of patents for machines or compositions of matter.</p> <p>4. Patent for Combination — Infringement not Avoided by Use of Different Means of Operation.</p> <p>One who appropriates a new and useful patented combination cannot escape infringement by the use of mechanical devices to unite or operate the elements of the combination which differ from those which are pointed out for the p