In re Aiken

Citations

• 1 MacA. Pat. Cas. 130
• 1 F. Cas. 227

Syllabus

<p>Commissioner’s answer — reply thereto. — No reply to the grounds of the Commissioner’s decision can be admitted before the judge upon appeal, nor can such reply be filed in the Patent Office to be recorded with the proceedings.</p> <p>Sm — proceedings in the oeeioe suspended. — After the Commissioner has laid before the judge the papers and evidence in the case, together with the grounds of his decision, the case is no longer before the Commissioner. Nothing further can be done in the case in the Patent Office until the decision of the judge and his proceedings shall be certified to the Commissioner.</p> <p>Reasons of appeal — must assign error in decision. — The insufficiency of the Commissioner’s reasons is'not of itself evidence that his decision was wrong, and is not, therefore, a good “reason of appeal.”</p> <p>“Useful and important” — degree immaterial. — The degree of usefulness or importance to be exhibited by the alleged invention is not defined by the statute (act of 1836), nor is the degree material if the invention does not interfere with any prior right or claim, and is in itself innocent. If good may be the result of granting a patent, and evil cannot be, the patent should be allowed, especially as it is doubtful whether a rejected applicant has any means of having his right to a patent brought before a court of law to be tried by a jury.</p>