Pressed Steel Car Co. v. Hansen

Citations

• 137 F. 403
• 71 C.C.A. 207
• 1905 U.S. App. LEXIS 4554

Syllabus

<p>1. Specific Performance—Parol Contract—Sufficiency of Proof.</p> <p>To warrant a decree for the specific performance of a contract, such contract must be clearly and unequivocally proved, and its terms, as to subject-matter, consideration, and all other essentials, must be specific and unambiguous.</p> <p>[Ed. Note.—For eases in point, see vol. 44, Cent. Dig. Specific Performance, §§ 56, 61, 113, 387-395.]</p> <p>2. Patents—Contract to Assign—Sufficiency of Proof.</p> <p>Findings that an express contract by defendant to assign to complainant, his employer, the patent rights in inventions made by him during his employment, was not proved, and that the facts shown were not such as to warrant the presumption that' such a contract existed, held sustained by the evidence.</p> <p>S. Master and Servant—Invention by Employé—Right of Employee to Patent.</p> <p>In the absence of an express contract- or agreement therefor, the relaten of employer and employé, under whatever circumstances, at least short of a specific employment to make an invention, does not vest the employer with the entire property right in an invention of the employé, and to the patent monopoly thereof, or with anything more than the shop right or an irrevocable license to use the invention.</p> <p>[Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see vol. 34, Cent. Dig. Master and Servant, § 71; vol. 38, Cent. Dig. Patents, § 125.]</p>