Hollida & Ball v. Hunt

Citations

• 70 Ill. 109

Syllabus

<p>1. Patent bights—constitutionality of State law relating to sales. The act entitled “An act to regulate the sale of patent rights, and to prevent frauds connected therewith,” approved March 25,1869, is unconstitutional and void, as attempting to regulate and control, by State legislation, matters of which the Congress of the United States has exclusive jurisdiction and control under the federal constitution.</p> <p>2. Sake—rights of patentees derived exclusively under the laws of Congress. The monopoly or exclusive right of making, using and selling the improvement invented, and which is secured by letters patent, is created by act of Congress, and no rights can be acquired under such letters, except such as are authorized by statute, and in the manner the statute prescribes.</p> <p>8. The right to vend necessarily implies the power to do so wherever the jurisdiction of the authority conferring the right extends. The power to regulate and control a right derived under national grant, by State legislation, necessarily concedes the supremacy of the latter. If a State has the power to regulate the sales of patent rights, there is nothing' to prevent it from entirely prohibiting the same.</p> <p>4. Same—law discriminating against notes taken on sales. It is undoubtedly within the power of the legislature to prescribe the form and declare the effect of negotiable instruments, but it has not the constitutional power to discriminate prejudicially against promissory notes taken on sales of patent rights, as such legislation tends, to a certain extent, to destroy the right granted by Congress to sell rights with the same freedom that may be exercised in regard to any other property, according to the common and usual course of trade.</p> <p>5. If a patentee complies with the act of Congress, which is paramount in respect to the rights and privileges secured to him, he will have the right to go into the open market, anywhere within the United States, and sell his property i