Source: https://openjurist.org/169/us/606
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 12:22:05+00:00

Document:
C. AULTMAN & CO. et al. SAME v. AULTMAN-MILLER CO.
It appears that the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company filed a bill in equity in the United States circuit court for the Northern district of Ohio against C. Aultman et al., and also one against the Aultman-Miller Company, in each of which it was sought to restrain the defendant from the future infringement of two patents covering automatic twine binders for harvesting machines. As the interests of the several defendants were closely identified, the two cases were heard together.
It has been settled by repeated decisions of this court that when a patent has received the signature of the secretary of the interior, countersigned by the commissioner of patents, and has had affixed to it the seal of the patent office, it has passed beyond the control and jurisdiction of that office, and is not subject to be revoked or canceled by the president, or any other officer of the government. U. S. v. Schurz, 102 U. S. 378; U. S. v. American Bell Tel. Co., 128 U. S. 315, 363, 9 Sup. Ct. 90. It has become the property of the patentee, and as such is entitled to the same legal protection as other property. Seymour v. Osborne, 11 Wall. 516; Cammeyer v. Newton, 94 U. S. 225; U. S. v. Palmer, 128 U. S. 262, 271, 9 Sup. Ct. 104, citing James v. Campbell, 104 U. S. 356.
The only authority competent to set a patent aside, or to annul it, or to correct it for any reason whatever, is vested in the courts of the United States, and not in the department which issued the patent. Moore v. Robbins, 96 U. S. 530, 533; U. S. v. American Bell Tel. Co., 128 U. S. 315, 364, 9 Sup. Ct. 90; Lumber Co.v . Rust, 168 U. S. 589, 593, 18 Sup. Ct. 208. And in this respect a patent for an invention stands in the same position and is subject to the same limitations as a patent for a grant of lands. The power to issue either one of these patents comes from congress and is vested in the same department. In the case of a patent for lands it has been held that when one has obtained a patent from the government he cannot be called upon to answer in regard to that patent before the officers of the land department, and that the only way his title can be impeached is by suit. U. S. v. Stone, 2 Wall. 525, 535; Mining Co. v. Campbell, 135 U. S. 286, 10 Sup. Ct. 765; Noble v. Railroad Co., 147 U. S. 165, 13 Sup. Ct. 271. But a suit may be maintained by the United States to set aside a patent for lands improperly issued by reason of mistake or fraud, but only in the case where the government has a direct interest or is under obligation respecting the relief invoked. U. S. v. Missouri, K. & T. R. Co., 141 U. S. 358, 12 Sup. Ct. 13.
The plain purpose of this section is to give the patentee an opportunity to make valid and operative that which was before invalid and inoperative,—invalid, because it claimed as new that which had been previously invented or used by the public; inoperative, because the specification was defective or insufficient. New matter cannot be introduced nor can the scope of the invention be enlarged. All that the applicant can do is to so amend his patent as to enable him to receive some practical and beneficial result from his actual invention, of which he has been deprived by defects or omissions in the original patent. The object of a patentee applying for a reissue is not to reopen the question of the validity of the original patent, but to rectify any error which may have been found to have arisen from his inadvertence or mistake. But until the amended patent shall have been issued the original stand precisely as if a reissue had never been applied for (Allen v. Culp, 166 U. S. 501, 505, 17 Sup. Ct. 644), and must be returned to the owner upon demand. The fact that the rules of the patent office require that the original patent should be placed in its custody for the purpose of surrendering it upon the issue of an amended patent gives that department no right to the possession of it upon the rejection of the application for a reissue. If the patentee abandoned his application for a reissue, he is entitled to a return of his original patent precisely as it stood when such application was made, and the patent office has no greater authority to mutilate it by rejecting any of its claims than it has to cancel the entire patent.
In Peck v. Collins, 103 U. S. 660, an application for reissue made under the laws in force in 1866 was held to absolutely extinguish the original patent. Subsequent to that time the law of 1870, of which Rev. St. § 4916, forms a pat , was passed. Mr. Justice Bradley, in discussing the clause in that section which declares that the surrender 'shall take effect upon the issue of the amended patent,' said: 'What may be the effect of this provision in cases where a reissue is refused it is not necessary now to decide. Possibly it may be to enable the applicant to have a return of his original patent if a reissue is refused on some formal or other ground which does not affect the original claim. But, if his title to the invention is disputed and adjudged against him, it would still seem that the effect of such a decision should be as fatal to his original patent as to his right to a reissue.' This same question was considered, but not decided, in Eby v. King, 158 U. S. 366, 15 Sup. Ct. 972; and in Allen v. Culp, 166 U. S. 501, 505, 17 Sup. Ct. 644, it was held that, if the original application for a reissue be rejected, the original patent stands precisely as though a reissue had never been applied for; but the effect of the refusal of the reissue upon some ground equally affecting the original patent was not considered.
In the case under consideration the examiner acted upon the application as if it were a new proceeding, and dealt with it as the evidence before him seemed to warrant, but his action in rejecting some of the claims which had been repeated from the original patent did not affect that patent. It is true that it was within his power to reject any claims contained in the application for a reissue which he judged to be invalid, whether contained in the original patent or not. It is also true that the reasons given for the rejection of such claims might apply equally to the same claims contained in the original patent, but with respect to such claims he was functus officio. His opinion thereon was but his personal opinion, and, however persuasive it might be, did not oust the jurisdiction of any court to which the owner might apply for an adjudication of his rights, and, as the examiner had no authority to affect the claims of the original patent, no appeal was necessary from his decision.

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