National Hollow Brake-Beam Co. v. Interchangeable Brake-Beam Co.

Citations

• 106 F. 693
• 45 C.C.A. 544
• 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 3611

Syllabus

<p>1. Patent a Contract — Hulks ok Construction.</p> <p>A patent is a contract, and its construction is governed by the same canons of interpretation that control the construction of other grants and agreements.</p> <p>S. Patent not Anticipated or Limited by Similar Device in Remóte Art not Analogous.</p> <p>A machine or combination which is not designed by its maker, nor actually used, nor apparently adapted, to perform the function of the patented machine or combination, but which is discovered in a remote art, and was used under radically different conditions to perform another function, neither anticipates nor limits the patent.</p> <p>3. Proof of Prior Use must be beyond Reasonable Doubt.</p> <p>Unsupported oral testimony of a prior use is always open to suspicion, and it cannot prevail over a patent, unless it is sufficient to establish such a use beyond a reasonable doubt.</p> <p>4. New Combination of Old Elements Patentable.</p> <p>A new combination of old elements, by which a new and useful result is produced, or an old result is obtained in a more facile, economical, and efficient way, may be protected by patent as securely as a new machine or composition of matter.</p> <p>5. Extensive Usf, not Conclusive of Novelty.</p> <p>The extensive use of a machine or combination which is clearly without novelty does not dispense with that statutory requirement, and it will not sustain a patent.</p> <p>6. Extensive Use Persuasive Evidence of Novelty.</p> <p>Where the question of novelty is fairly open for consideration under the law, the fact that a patented device or combination has displaced others which had previously been used to perform its function, and has gone into immediate and general use, is pregnant and persuasive evidence that it involves invention.</p> <p>7. Second Claim of Patent No. 3G1.009 Valid.</p> <p>The second claim of letters patent No. 301,009, to Phillip Hien, dated April 12, 1887, is valid, and secures a novel and useful invention.</p> <p>8.