Tropenas v. Bryson

Citations

• 215 Pa. 12
• 64 A. 385
• 1906 Pa. LEXIS 721

Syllabus

<p>Patents — Patent for apparatus — Patent for process — Lácense—Contract.</p> <p>On a bill in equity for an accounting, it appeared that by an agreement in writing plaintiff licensed the defendant to use a patented improved apparatus in the process of making steel, and also agreed to instruct him in and permit him to use certain secret improved methods of manufacturing steel in connection with the patented apparatus. The defendant agreed to pay certain royalties. It appeared that the defendant paid the royalties for a time, and then ceased to pay them without annulling the agreement. Defendant claimed that the plaintiff’s patent infringed upon another patent, but the evidence showed that the patent referred to was one for an improved process in making steel while the plaintiff’s patent was for an apparatus only, and it did not appear that anybody had raised any question of infringement. Held, that the plaintiff was entitled to a decree for an accounting.</p> <p>Under the patent laws of the United States an improvement in a process and an improvement in a machine are entirely different things, but each in its own department may present subject-matter which is patentable.</p>