Slawson v. Grand Street Railroad
Supreme Court of the United States
Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United Stages for the Eastern District of New York. This was a suit brought by John B. Slawson against the Grand Street, Prospect Park, and Flatbush Railroad Company, to restrain the infringement of two patents, one granted to him as inventor, and the other held and owned by him as an assignee.
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Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United Stages for the Eastern District of New York. This was a suit brought by John B. Slawson against the Grand Street, Prospect Park, and Flatbush Railroad Company, to restrain the infringement of two patents, one granted to him as inventor, and the other held and owned by him as an assignee. The one first mentioned is a reissue, No. 4240, dated Jan. 24, 1871. The invention therein described is an improvement in fare-boxes for receiving the fares of passengers in omnibuses and street cars.- The specification describes the ordinary fare-box used in street…
1Opinion of the Court
Mr. Justice. Woods,
after stating the facts, delivered the opinion of the court.
The appellant insists that the dismissal of a bill because the inventions described in the patents were not patentable, when no such defence was set up in the answer, is of doubtful propriety, and is a practice unfair to complainants.
The practice was sanctioned by this court in Dunbar v. Myers, 94 U. S. 187. In that case the defence set up in the answer was want of utility in the patented invention ; that the patentees were not the first inventors, &c. The Circuit Court rendered a decree for the complainant for a…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Hotchkiss v. GreenwoodSupreme Court of the United States · 1851
- Dunbar v. MyersSupreme Court of the United States · 1876
- Stimpson v. WoodmanSupreme Court of the United States · 1870
3Cited by122 opinions
- Cuno Engineering Corp. v. Automatic Devices Corp.Supreme Court of the United States · 1942
- Topliff v. TopliffSupreme Court of the United States · 1892
- Sinclair & Carroll Co. v. Interchemical Corp.Supreme Court of the United States · 1945
- Constant v. Advanced Micro-Devices, Inc.Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit · 1988
- Mahn v. HarwoodSupreme Court of the United States · 1884
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