In re Blandy

Citations

• 1 MacA. Pat. Cas. 552
• 3 F. Cas. 671

Syllabus

<p>Patentability — steam-engine—hollow bed-plate — double use.- — The application to a portable steam-engine of a hollow bed-plate fastened to the boiler, and supporting the operative parts of the engine out of contact with the boiler, whereby these parts will not be affected by the expansion and contraction of the boiler: Held, not to be a patentable invention, in view of the fact that similar bed-plates had previously been used in various parts of the engine for a similar purpose. It is an obvious application and a mere double use of an old device.</p> <p>Invention — principle—double use. — An invention must involve a new principle. When the principle of the alleged invention has been discovered and applied before, the new application of it will be what is called a double use. In such cases, although there may be in the new application some degree of novelty — something may have been discovered or found out that was not known before — yet, unless the new occasion on which the principle is applied leads to some kind of new manufacture or to some new result, it will be but a double use.</p>