United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Aron v. Manhattan Railway Co., 132 U.S. 84 (1889)

Aron v. Manhattan Railway Company

No. 43

Argued October 28-29, 1889

Decided November 11, 1889

132 U.S. 84

Syllabus

The first five claims of letters patent No. 288,494, granted to Joseph Aron, as assignee of William W. Rosenfield, the inventor, November 13, 1883, for an "improvement in railway car gates" are invalid because what Rosenfield did did not require invention.

The same devices employed by him existed in earlier patents; all that he did was to adapt them to the special purpose to which he contemplated their application, by making modifications which did not require invention,

Page 132 U. S. 85

but only the exercise of ordinary mechanical skill, and his right to a patent must rest upon the novelty of the means he contrived to carry his idea into practical application.

In equity. Decree dismissing the bill. Plaintiff appealed. The case is stated in the opinion of the Court.