Peter Hogg and Cornelius Delamater, Plaintiffs In Error v. John Emerson

• Decision Date: 01 December 1850
• Parties: PETER HOGG AND CORNELIUS H. DELAMATER, PLAINTIFFS IN ERROR, v. JOHN B. EMERSON
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

52 U.S. 587

11 How. 587

13 L.Ed. 824

PETER HOGG AND CORNELIUS H. DELAMATER, PLAINTIFFS IN ERROR, v. JOHN B. EMERSON.

December Term, 1850

THIS case was brought up from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

It was reported in 6 Howard, 437, and at the conclusion of the report of that case is the following note:——

'NOTE.—After the delivery of this opinion, the counsel for the plaintiffs in error suggested that other questions were made below, which they desired to be considered, and therefore moved for another certiorari to bring them up. This was allowed, and judgment suspended till the next term.'

Another certiorari was issued, which brought up the entire record. The case, as now to be reported, consists of three records, in parts. Instead of republishing those parts already reported, they will only be referred to; and if the reader is desirous to investigate the case thoroughly, he must read this report in conjunction with that in 6 Howard.

On the 8th of March, 1834, John B. Emerson obtained a patent for a new and useful improvement in the steam-engine, which is set forth, together with the schedule, in 6 Howard, 437 et seq.

At April term, 1844, he brought an action of trespass on the case against Hogg and Delamater for an infringement of his patent right. The declaration is inserted in extenso in 6 Howard. The defendants filed the general issue plea, and gave the following notices.

'Circuit Court of the United States of America, for the Southern District of New York, in the Second Circuit.

'PETER HOGG & CORNELIUS DELAMATER v. JOHN B. EMERSON.

'SIR,—You will please to take notice that, on the trial of the above-entitled cause, without waiving the right to require the plaintiff to make out all facts essential to support and prove his declaration and cause, and without admitting any part thereof, the defendants will, under the plea of the general issue aforesaid, give in evidence, prove, and insist upon the following special matter, of which notice is hereby given, pursuant to the statute, in addition to such other defence as they are by law entitled to make.

'I. That the patent granted to John B. Emerson, bearing date the 8th day of March, 1834, under which the said plaintiff claims, is void for the following, among other reasons:——

'1. Because, although it is, in and by the schedule annexed to the said patent, recited that the said John B. Emerson had alleged that he had invented a new and useful improvement in the steam-engine, and in the mode of propelling therewith either vessels on the water or carriages on the land; and it is claimed that, in and by the said patent, the exclusive right and liberty of making, using, and vending to others to be used, the said improvement, was granted to the said John B. Emerson, his heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, for the term of fourteen years from and after the date of the said patent; yet the said patentee did not (according to law) deliver, with his application for the said patent, or at any other time, to any of the officers who were to consider his application, a written description of his said improvement or invention, and of the manner of using the same, in such full, clear, and exact terms, as to distinguish the same from all other things before known, and to enable any person skilled in mechanics to make and use the said invention; and that the improvements claimed by the said John B. Emerson are not in the said patent, or in the schedule thereto annexed, described in

such full, clear, and exact terms as to distinguish the same from all other things before known, or to enable any person skilled in mechanics to make or use the said improvements; and that the said John B. Emerson did not deliver, with his said application for the said patent, or at any other time, to any of the officers who were to consider his application, a full explanation of his said improvements, and the several modes in which he had contemplated the application of the principle by which they could be distinguished from other inventions, and he did not accompany his application with drawings and written reference, as required by law.

'2. Because the said patent is granted for an improvement in the steam-engine; and in the schedule annexed to the said patent the said John B. Emerson has claimed as his invention different and distinct improvements, to wit, in the steam-engine and in the paddle-wheel, either of which may be used singly and separately for the purpose indicated in said schedule. And although the said John B. Emerson, in the schedule annexed to the said patent, does not claim the invention of spiral paddle-wheels, but claims merely the invention of an improvement in spiral paddle-wheels already essayed, yet he has not, in the said schedule annexed to the said patent, described in what his said improvement in the said spiral paddle-wheels consists; so that any person skilled in mechanics can know wherein the paddle-wheels mentioned in the said schedule differ from spiral paddle-wheels before known and used; and because no distinction or discrimination is made between the parts and portions of the said propelling-wheel of which the said John B. Emerson may be the inventor or discoverer; the said defendants protesting at the same time that the said John B. Emerson has not been the inventor or discoverer of any part or portion of the alleged improvements.

'3. Because the thing patented as set forth in the said patent is different from the things claimed as the invention of the patentee in the schedule annexed to the patent. The thing patented is a new and useful improvement in the steamengine; but in the schedules annexed to the said patent, the thing claimed by the said patentee as his inventions is not only the alleged improvement in the steam-engine, but also the spiral propelling-wheel, and the application of the revolving vertical shaft to the turning of a capstan on the deck of a vessel, while the specification indicates only an improvement in the spiral paddle-wheel, without describing the same in such full, clear, and exact terms as to distinguish the same from all other things before known, or to enable any person skilled in mechanics to make or use the said improvement.

'4. Because the drawings of his alleged invention, as deposited in the Patent-Office, do not agree with each other, nor with the specification to his letters patent annexed, and render it altogether doubtful and uncertain what his alleged invention truly and really was.

'II. And the said defendants will further give in evidence, and prove on the trial of the issue aforesaid, that the machine for propelling boats alleged to have been made by them, in violation of the right of the plaintiff in this case, was made, if made at all, under certain letters patent heretofore granted by the United States to one John Ericsson, to wit, on the 1st day of February, in the year 1838.

'III. And the said defendants will further give in evidence, and prove on the trial of the issue aforesaid, that there was at no time on file, or deposited in the Patent-Office, whilst they were engaged in making machines under the said John Ericsson's patent, any specifications or drawings deposited by the said John B. Emerson, from which any person skilled in mechanics could construct a machine similar to the machines they have constructed under the patent of the said John Ericsson.

'IV. And the said defendants will further give in evidence, and prove on the trial of the issue aforesaid, that the specification to the letters patent of the said John B. Emerson annexed contained no description of the inventions and improvements now alleged and pretended to be covered by his said letters patent, and claimed to be included therein.

'V. And the said defendants will further give in evidence, and prove on the trial of the issue aforesaid, that the said John B. Emerson was not the original inventor or discoverer of any part or parts of the propelling-wheel described in his said letters patent, or of any improvement in any part or parts of the said machine.

'VI. And the said defendants will further give in evidence, on the trial of the issue aforesaid, a printed description of a certain propelling-wheel, invented by Archibald Robinson, of London, which said description was published in one or more public works, and particularly in the seventh volume of the London Journal of Arts and Sciences, edited by W. Newton, and published in London in the year 1831, and extensively known to mechanics and engineers in the United States; tending to prove that the plaintiff was not the original and first inventor or discoverer of the thing patented, or of a substantial and material part thereof claimed as new, but that it had been described as aforesaid, in public works, before the supposed discovery thereof by the plaintiff.

'VII. And the said defendants will further give in evidence, on the trial of the issue aforesaid, the printed description of certain improvements in machinery for propelling steam-vessels, invented by Jacob Perkins, of London, as early as the year 1829, which said description was published in a public work, printed in London, in the year 1831, to wit, in the seventh volume of the London Journal of Arts and Sciences, edited by W. Newton, a well-known scientific journal, published in London in the year aforesaid. And the said defendants will further give in evidence a plate, number nine in the said volume, containing an engraved delineation of the said invention; all tending to prove that the plaintiff was not the original and true inventor or discoverer of the thing patented, or of a substantial and material part thereof claimed as new, but that it had been described as aforesaid, in a public work, before the supposed discovery thereof by the plaintiff.

'VIII. And the said defendants will further give in evidence, on the trial of the issue aforesaid, a...