Blunt v. Patten
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York
[At law. Qui tarn action by Edmund M. Blunt against Richard Patten to recover the penalty for an infringement of copyright. Verdict for plaintiff. For bill in equity to restrain infringement, see Case No. 1,580.] This action was brought for a breach of copyright.
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[At law. Qui tarn action by Edmund M. Blunt against Richard Patten to recover the penalty for an infringement of copyright. Verdict for plaintiff. For bill in equity to restrain infringement, see Case No. 1,580.] This action was brought for a breach of copyright. It appeared in evidence that the plaintiff, in 1821, caused a survey to be made of the South shoal of Nantucket; and that it was then ascertained that the said shoal had been laid down in all the charts previously in use, twenty miles too far to the southward, it being in latitude forty-one degrees four minutes, instead of forty…
1Opinion of the Court
THOMPSON, Circuit Justice,
charged the jury that the privilege of an author to the exclusive sale of his works for a limited term of years, although a monopoly, was not so in the odious meaning of the term; it was but a proper reward for his labor provided by law, and to which he was as much entitled as to the exclusive enjoyment of any other kind of property: that the plaintiff could not, it was true, obtain a copyright in the shoal itself, nor in the original elements of his charts; but that he had a right to the results of his labors and surveys. The defendant might resort to the original…
2Cited by1 opinion
- Blunt v. PattenU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York · 1828