United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Collins Company v. Coes, 130 U.S. 56 (1889)

Collins Company v. Coes

No. 164

Argued January 10-11, 1889

Decided March 5, 1889

130 U.S. 56

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED

STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

Syllabus

The first claim in reissued letters patent No. 5294, granted February 25, 1573, to the Collins Company, as assignee of Lucius Jordan and Leander E. Smith, for an improvement in wrenches was only the application to the bar of the Coes wrench (which was an existing patented invention

Page 130 U. S. 57

at the date of the alleged invention of Jordan and Smith) for the purpose of securing and supporting the step, and resisting the strain of a nut already in use on the Hewitt or Dixie wrench, and as such it lacks the novelty of invention requisite to support a patent within the recent decisions of this Court, and this conclusion is not affected by the fact that in complainant's wrench, the screw-rod of the Coes wrench is availed of instead of the screw-sleeve of the Dixie wrench.

The second claim in said reissue is for "the nut F, combined with the wrench-bar, and interiorly recessed at d, for the purpose set forth." Some years later, the patentee filed in the Patent Office a disclaimer thereto