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6 

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO. v. APPLE INC. 

Opinion of the Court 

A 
The text resolves this case.  The term “article of manu-
facture,” as used in §289, encompasses both a product sold
to a consumer and a component of that product. 

“Article  of  manufacture”  has  a  broad  meaning.    An 
“article”  is  just  “a  particular  thing.”    J.  Stormonth,  A 
Dictionary of the English Language 53 (1885) (Stormonth);
see also American Heritage Dictionary, at 101 (“[a]n indi-
vidual  thing  or  element  of  a  class;  a  particular  object  or 
item”).  And  “manufacture”  means  “the  conversion  of  raw 
materials  by  the  hand,  or  by  machinery,  into  articles 
suitable  for  the  use  of  man”  and  “the  articles  so  made.” 
Stormonth 589; see also American Heritage Dictionary, at 
1070  (“[t]he  act,  craft,  or  process  of  manufacturing  prod-
ucts,  especially  on  a  large  scale”  or  “[a]  product  that  is
manufactured”).  An  article  of  manufacture,  then,  is  sim- 
ply a thing made by hand or machine. 

So  understood,  the  term  “article  of  manufacture”  is 
broad  enough  to  encompass  both  a  product  sold  to  a  con-
sumer  as  well  as  a  component  of  that  product.    A  compo-
nent of a product, no less than the product itself, is a thing 
made  by  hand  or  machine.  That  a  component  may  be 
integrated  into  a  larger  product,  in  other  words,  does  not 
put it outside the category of articles of manufacture.

This  reading  of  article  of  manufacture  in  §289  is  con-
sistent with 35 U. S. C. §171(a), which makes “new, origi-
nal  and  ornamental  design[s]  for  an  article  of  manufac-
ture”  eligible  for  design  patent  protection.3   The  Patent 

—————— 

3 As originally enacted, the provision protected “any new and original
design for a manufacture.”  §3, 5 Stat. 544.  The provision listed exam-
ples,  including  a  design  “worked  into  or  worked  on,  or  printed  or 
painted or cast or otherwise fixed on, any article of manufacture” and a
“shape or configuration of any article of manufacture.”  Ibid.  A stream-
lined  version  enacted  in  1902  protected  “any  new,  original,  and  orna-
mental  design  for  an  article  of  manufacture.”    Ch.  783,  32  Stat.  193. 
The Patent Act of 1952 retained that language.  See §171, 66 Stat. 813.