Satterthwait v. Marshall

Citations

• 4 Del. Ch. 337

Syllabus

<p>It is within the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery to decree the specific performance of a contract for the assignment of an interest in a patent.</p> <p>The true test of the jurisdiction for specific performance is the adequacy or inadequacy of damages as a redress for the breach of the covenant.</p> <p>When under a contract of sale, from the nature of the chattel interest contracted for, or from any circumstances, a sufficiently certain and adequate redress cannot be afforded by a suit at law, equity will relieve, without respect to the question whether the subject-matter of the contract is real or personal property.</p> <p>The act of Congress, which gives to the Courts of the United States exclusive cognizance of suits under the patent laws, applies only to such suits as directly involve the question of the validity of a patent, or of its infringement.</p> <p>When, pending an application for a patent, the inventor and two other persons enter into articles of partnership, for the business of selling rights under the patent, and the manufacture and sale of the patented articles, and the inventor further covenanted that, after the patent was obtained, he would assign to each of the other parties, one-third interest in the patent right: Held, that the right to an assignment became absolute upon the obtaining of the patent, and was not to depend upon the subsequent contingency of forming and prosecuting a partnership.</p> <p>The rule that a court of equity will not decree the specific performance of an agreement for a partnership, goes only to the extent that the Court will not undertake to compel unwilling parties to act in the relation of partners. An agreement for the future execution of formal articles of partnership will be enforced in equity although after they are executed the Court cannot compel the parties to act under them.</p> <p>The assignor of a covenant for the assignment of an interest in a patent, who has assigned his whole interest in the coven