Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/169/606/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 13:58:13+00:00

Document:
If the owner of a patent applies to the Patent Office for a reissue of it and includes, among the claims in the application, the same claims as those which were included in the old patent, and the primary examiner rejects some of such claims.for want of patentable novelty, by reference to prior patents, and allows others, both old and new, the owner of the patent does not, by taking no appeal and by abandoning his application for reissue, hold the original patent (the return of which he procures from the Patent Office) invalidated as to those of its claims which were disallowed for want of patentable novelty by the primary examiner in the proceeding for reissue; as the Patent Office, by the issue of the original patent, had lost jurisdiction over it, and did not regain it by the application for a reissue.
This was a question certified to this Court by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit involving the authority of a primary examiner of the Patent Office to reject as invalid claims of an original patent which were incorporated in an application for a reissue.
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.
The question certified involves only patent No. 159,506, issued to Marquis L. Gorham, February 9, 1875, and the other patent sued upon will therefore not be considered. The record shows that there was filed in the Patent Office by the executrix of Gorham an application for a reissue of this patent, in which were included several claims of the original patent, as well as many new claims. Upon consideration, the assistant or primary examiner decided that claims 3, 10, 11, 25, and 26 of the original patent should be rejected for want of patentable novelty, and reference was made to prior patented devices. No appeal was taken from this decision, and subsequently, in compliance with a request, the original patent was returned to the plaintiff corporation, which had become the owner thereof. Thereafter these suits were brought against the defendants upon the original patent.
In the circuit court, it was decided that as the original claims 3, 10, 11, 25, and 26 had been determined by the examiner to be invalid, and no appeal had been taken from that decision, but the same had apparently been acquiesced in, the adverse action must be regarded as fatal to the claims in question, and to the same extent as if the rejection had been incident to the original application for the patent. 58 F. 778.
the old patent, and the primary examiner rejects some of such claims for want of patentable novelty, by reference to prior patents, and allows others, both old and new, does the owner of the patent, by taking no appeal and by abandoning his application for reissue, hold the original patent, the return of which he procures from the Patent Office, invalidated as to those of its claims which were disallowed for want of patentable novelty by the primary examiner in the proceeding for reissue?"
The validity of the claims in question depends upon the view taken of the action of the examiner in rejecting them when incorporated in an application for a reissue of the patent, upon the ground that the claims were wanting in patentable novelty, as evidenced by prior patents cited by him. No appeal was taken from this decision, and the matter lay in abeyance for nearly two years before the plaintiff corporation, which had in the meantime become the owner of the patent, abandoned the application for a reissue, and requested and obtained from the Patent Office the return of the original patent.
U.S. 315, 128 U. S. 363. 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; United States v. Palmer, 128 U. S. 262, 128 U. S. 271, 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, 96 U. S. 533; United States v. Am. Bell Telephone Co., 128 U. S. 315, 128 U. S. 364; Michigan Land & Lumber Co. v. Rust, 168 U. S. 589, 168 U. S. 593. 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. United States v. Stone, 2 Wall. 525, 69 U. S. 535; Iron Silver Mining Co. v. Campbell, 135 U. S. 286; Noble v. Union River Logging Railroad, 147 U. S. 165. 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. United States v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, 141 U. S. 358.
"the specifications and claim in every such case shall be subject to revision and restriction in the same manner as original applications, . . . but no new matter shall be introduced into the specifications."
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, 166 U. S. 505), 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.
"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, and in Allen v. Culp, 166 U. S. 501, 166 U. S. 505, 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 neither of these cases was this Court called upon to decide the question which has been certified, and the expression of opinion in Peck v. Collins, relied upon by the defendants, must be considered merely a dictum, and lacking the force of a judicial determination.
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.
Had the original patent been procured by fraud or deception, it would have been the duty of the Commissioner of Patents to have had the matter referred to the Attorney General with the recommendation that a suit be instituted to cancel the patent; but to attempt to cancel a patent upon an application for reissue when the first patent is considered invalid by the examiner would be to deprive the applicant of his property without due process of law, and would be in fact an invasion of the judicial branch of the government by the executive.
Our conclusion upon the whole case is that, upon the issue of the original patent, the Patent Office had no power to revoke, cancel, or annul it. It had lost jurisdiction over it, and did not regain such jurisdiction by the application for a reissue. Upon application's being made for such reissue, the Patent Office was authorized to deal with all its claims, the originals as well as those inserted first in the application, and might declare them to be invalid, but such action would not affect the claims of the original patent, which remained in full force if the application for a reissue were rejected or abandoned.
The question certified to this Court must be answered in the negative.

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