Yale Lock Manufacturing Co. v. James

Citations

• 125 U.S. 447
• 8 S. Ct. 967
• 31 L. Ed. 807
• 1888 U.S. LEXIS 1942

Syllabus

<p>A patent granted in 1871, for an improvement in post-office boxes was reissued in 1872, and again in 1877, and again in 1879. The original patent limited the invention to a metallic frontage made continuous by connecting the adjoining frames to each other, and not merely to the woodwork. There was no mistake, and the original patent was not defective or insufficient, in either the descriptive portion-or the claims. In the progress of the first reissue through the Patent Office,- the applicant, on its requirement, struck out of the proposed specification everything which suggested any other mode of fastening than one by which the frames were to be fastened to each other: Held, that the'first reissue could not have been construed as claiming any other mode of fastening; that therefore the third reissue could not be construed as claiming any other mode of fastening; and that, as the defendant’s structures would not have infringed any claim of the original patent, they could not be held to infringe any claim of the third reissue.</p>