Savary v. Lauth

Citations

• 1 MacA. Pat. Cas. 691
• 21 F. Cas. 551

Syllabus

<p>Secret intention — susbequent inventor’s public use and sale. — Where an inventor keeps his invention secret for years, and suffers a subsequent and independent inventor to engage extensively in the manufacture and sale of the same invention without protest or notice of his prior claim, he thereby forfeits his right to a patent. Under such circumstances, his delay will not be excused by the fact that his application was filed before the patent issued to the rival inventor.</p> <p>Acquiescence in public use presumed from circumstances. — A knowledge of, and acquiescence in, the public use and sale of the invention by another may be presumed from the circumstances of the case, as where the application of the subsequent inventor for a patent and his commercial use of that invention were matters of notoriety in the locality where the first inventor resided.</p> <p>Sm. — Whatever maybe the intention of the inventor, if he suffers his invention to go into public use through any means whatever, without an immediate assertion of his right, he is not entitled to a patent; nor will a patent obtained under such circumstances protect his right. (Shaw v. Oooper, 1 Peters, 29.)</p> <p>Case stated.t — S. perfected his invention, in 1854, and kept it secret until August, 1858, when he filed his application, and in the meantime, in June, 1858, L. independently made the invention, introduced it into public use with the knowledge of S., and filed an application for a patent March, 1858: Held, That S. was debarred from receiving a patent.</p>