717 Madison Place

22 U.S. 603 (1824)

9 Wheat. 603

Ex parte WOOD & BRUNDAGE.

Supreme Court of United States.

March 11, 1824.

March 17, 1824.

This cause was argued by Mr. Haines,^[a] in support of the rule, and by Mr. Emmett,^[b] against it.

Mr. Justice STORY delivered the opinion of the Court.

The District Judge of the southern district of New-York, under the 10th section of the patent act, of the 21st of February, 1793, chapter 11., granted a rule upon Charles Wood and Gilbert 604*604 Brundage, at the instance and complaint of Jethro Wood, to show cause why process should not issue against them, to repeal a patent granted to them for a certain invention, in due form of law; and upon hearing the parties, no sufficient cause being, in his judgment, shown to the contrary, he, on the 2d day of July, 1823, passed an order, that the said rule be made absolute, and that the said patent be repealed; and that process issue to repeal the said patent, and for the costs of the complainant. The patentees, by their counsel, moved the Court to direct a record to be made of the whole proceedings, and that process, in the nature of a scire facias, should be issued, to try the validity of the patent. The Court denied the motion, upon the ground that these were summary proceedings, and that the patent was repealed de facto, by making the rule absolute; and that the process to be issued, was not in the nature of a scire facias, to try the validity of the patent, but merely process repealing the patent.

A motion was made, on a former day of this term, in behalf of the patentees, for a rule upon the district Judge, to show cause why a mandamus should not issue from this Court, directing him to make a record of the proceedings in the cause, and to issue a scire facias, for the purpose of trying the validity of the patent. The rule having been granted, and due service had, the case has since been argued by counsel, for and against the rule; and the opinion of this Court is now to be delivered.

Two objections have been urged at the bar, 605*605 against the making this rule absolute. The first is, that these proceedings, being summary, are not properly matters of record. The second, that this is not a case in which, by law, a scire facias, or process in the nature of a scire facias, can be awarded, to try the validity of the patent.

Both of these objections are founded upon the provisions of the 10th section of the patent act, and must be decided by a careful examination of those provisions. The words are, “that, upon oath or affirmation being made, before the Judge of the District Court, where the patentee, his executors, &c. reside, that any patent, which shall be issued in pursuance of this act, was obtained surreptitiously, or upon false suggestion, and motion made to the said Court within three years after issuing the said patent, but not afterwards, it shall and may be lawful for the Judge of the said District Court, if the matter alleged shall appear to him to be sufficient, to grant a rule that the patentee, or his executor, &c. show cause why process should not issue against him, to repeal such patent; and if sufficient cause shall not be shown to the contrary, the rule shall be made absolute; and thereupon, the Judge shall order process to be issued against such patentee, or his executors, &c., with costs of suit. And in case no sufficient cause shall be shown to the contrary, or if it shall appear that the patentee was not the true inventor or discoverer, judgment shall be rendered by such Court for the repeal of the said patent. And if the party at whose complaint the process issued, shall have judgment given against him, he shall pay all 606*606 such costs as the defendant shall be put to in defending the suit, to be taxed by the Court, and recovered in due course of law.”

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Recently, I was looking for more information on the state granted business monopoly (business method??)  that was at the heart of the dispute in Gibbons v. Ogden when I ran across the book Gibbons v. Ogden, Law, and Society in the Early Republic.   The author, Thomas H. Cox, recounts the legislative process for the Patent Act of 1793:

The Patent Act of 1790 appeared simple, but in practice, it proved unworkable.  Many inventors complained that federal patents were expensive, hard to obtain, impossible to enforce, and limited in scope. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson condemned the very concept of patents as antidemocratic. In truth, he  and his colleagues lacked the time to review applications. On February 4, 1791, Jefferson lobbied Congress to revise existing U.S. patent law. Three days later, he submitted a bill that made the application process more costly and timeconsuming.  Specifically, the bill required an applicant to petition the secretary of state for a warrant that testified to the usefulness of the invention. After paying a fee directly to the treasury, the inventor then had to register with every U.S. federal district court and publish notices of the invention three times in a major paper in each of those districts to warn away other competitors.

While Jefferson drafted the bill, the Patent Board reviewed requests from John Fitch, James Rumsey, Henry Read, and John Stevens. To avoid confrontations, the board canceled a hearing with the inventors and urged them to wait for the passage of the new patent bill, which was before Congress at the time. Fitch protested the bill, stating he “had no idea that he must go all the way from Kentucky to Cape Cod, and quite the Distance of Province of Main[e] to publish his inventions, and to pay out large fees wherever he goes for the same.” For once on the same side as Fitch, Joseph Barnes published a polemic that condemned Jefferson’s bill for favoring European technological discoveries over American inventive genius. Despite Barnes’s strong words, the ever-wary Fitch suspected Jefferson and Rumsey of collusion to keep him from developing a steamboat franchise.

Jefferson resubmitted his bill to Congress early in March 1792. The measure now required an applicant to register with the secretary of state, pay a fee, and provide a short description and model of the invention. The inventor, however, still had to file and register the patent in every judicial district in the United States. The new bill also allowed an offender to claim ignorance of the law or irrelevancy of the patent in question as valid defenses. It specified that patents were the private, intellectual property of their owners and that the public would not be allowed to view related documents until the originals expired. In addition, the bill asserted that federal patents trumped any state licenses granted before the

ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, applicants had to be American citizens.

When Congress reconvened in January 1793, it appointed a committee, chaired by Hugh Williamson, to consider Jefferson’s bill. The following month, the bill passed both houses of Congress to become the Patent Act of 1793. In 1800, Congress revised the act to allow resident aliens to apply and to set heavy fines for those who infringed on patent rights.  However, like its predecessor, the revised act allowed applicants to secure patents for inventions regardless of how similar their discoveries might  be. Fitch, Rumsey, Read, and Stevens quickly secured federal patents for their steamboats under the new federal guidelines. However, realizing the worthlessness of such documents, the inventors quickly turned to the states to protect their work.

 Gibbons v. Ogden, Law and Society in the Early Republic, Ohio University Press-Swallow Press, 2009 at pp. 14-15.

22 U.S. 1 (1824)9 Wheat. 1

GIBBONS, Appellant,
v.
OGDEN, Respondent.

Supreme Court of United States.

February 4, 5, and 6, 1824.

March 2, 1824.

3*3 Mr. Webster, for the appellant.

Mr. Oakley, for the respondent.

186*186 Mr. Chief Justice MARSHALL delivered the opinion of the Court, and, after stating the case, proceeded as follows:

The appellant contends that this decree is erroneous, because the laws which purport to give the exclusive privilege it sustains, are repugnant to the constitution and laws of the United States.

They are said to be repugnant —

1st. To that clause in the constitution which authorizes Congress to regulate commerce.

2d. To that which authorizes Congress to promote the progress of science and useful arts.

The State of New-York maintains the constitutionality of these laws; and their Legislature, their Council of Revision, and their Judges, have repeatedly concurred in this opinion. It is supported by great names — by names which have all the titles to consideration that virtue, intelligence, and office, can bestow. No tribunal can approach the decision of this question, without feeling a just and real respect for that opinion which is sustained by such authority; but it is the province of this Court, while it respects, not to bow to it implicitly; and the Judges must exercise, in the examination of the subject, that understanding which Providence has bestowed upon them, with that independence which the people of the United 187*187 States expect from this department of the government.

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20 U.S. 356 (1822)

7 Wheat. 356

EVANS
v.
EATON.

Supreme Court of United States.

March 4, 1822.

March 20, 1822.

357*357 Mr. C.J. Ingersoll,^[a] for the plaintiff.

Mr. Sergeant, contra.

Mr. Justice WASHINGTON.

This is an action for an infringement of the plaintiff’s patent, which the plaintiff alleges to be,

1. For the whole of the machine employed in the manufacture of flour, called the Hopperboy.

2. For an improvement on the Hopperboy.

The question is, is the plaintiff entitled to recover upon either of these claims? The question is stated 358*358 thus singly, because the defendant admits that he uses the very Hopperboy for which the patent is, in part, granted, and justifies himself by insisting,

1st. That the plaintiff was not the original inventor of, but that the same was in use prior to the plaintiff’s patent, the Hopperboy as patented.

2d. That his patent for an improvement is bad; because the nature and extent of the improvement is not stated in his specification; and if it had been, still the patent comprehends the whole machine, and is therefore too broad.

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