Western Electric Co. v. LaRue

Citations

• 139 U.S. 601
• 11 S. Ct. 670
• 35 L. Ed. 294
• 1891 U.S. LEXIS 2412

Syllabus

<p>A telegraph sounder constructed under letters patent No. 352,317, granted November 9, 1886, to Charles D. Haskins, infringes the third claim of letters patent No. 270,767 for a new and useful improvement in telegraph keys, viz., “The combination, in a telegraph key, of the lever fulcrumedupon the torsional spring, with the adjusting screws H H', for regulating the amplitude of the lever movement and the retractile resistance of the torsion-spring, substantially as described.”</p> <p>While the promotion of an old device, such, for instance, as a torsional spring, to a new sphere of action, in which it performs a new function, involves invention, the transfer or adaptation of the same device to a similar sphere of action, where it performs substantially the same function, does not involve invention.</p> <p>Winans v. Denmead, 15 How. 330, affirmed and applied.</p>