Tucker v. Spalding
Supreme Court of the United States
Error to the Circuit Court for the District of California. Spalding brought an action at law against Tucker, to recover damages for the infringement of a patent for the use of movable teeth in saws and saw-plates. The plaintiff’s patent claimed the forming of recesses or sockets in saws or saw-plates for detachable or removable teeth on circular lines, and in combination with these recesses, teeth having their base or bottom parts formed on circular lines as described.
Read the full summary
Error to the Circuit Court for the District of California. Spalding brought an action at law against Tucker, to recover damages for the infringement of a patent for the use of movable teeth in saws and saw-plates. The plaintiff’s patent claimed the forming of recesses or sockets in saws or saw-plates for detachable or removable teeth on circular lines, and in combination with these recesses, teeth having their base or bottom parts formed on circular lines as described. The defendant offered in evidence as covering the subject-matter of the plaintiff’s patent a patent to Jonah Newton,…
1Opinion of the CourtJustice Miller
We are of opinion that the court erred in refusing to admit the patent to Newton, confessedly prior in date and invention to that of the plaintiff", which the defendant offered as covering the subject-matter of the plaintiff’s patent.
Whatever may be our personal opinions of the fitness of the jury as a tribunal to determine the diversity or identity in principle of two mechanical instruments, it cannot be questioned that when the-plaintiff, in the exercise of the option which the law gives him, brings his suit in the law in preference to the equity side of the court, that question must be…
2Cited by47 opinions
- MARKMAN Et Al. v. WESTVIEW INSTRUMENTS, INC., Et Al.Supreme Court of the United States · 1996
- Potts v. CreagerSupreme Court of the United States · 1895
- Coupe v. RoyerSupreme Court of the United States · 1895
- United Gas Public Service Co. v. TexasSupreme Court of the United States · 1938
- Mathews Conveyer Co. v. Palmer-Bee Co.Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit · 1943
42 more not listed; retrieve them via the Exa API.