United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Underwood v. Gerber, 149 U.S. 224 (1893)

Underwood v. Gerber

No. 217

Argued April 19, 1893

Decided May 1, 1893

149 U.S. 224

Syllabus

In a suit in equity brought on letters patent No. 348,073, granted August 24, 1886, on an application filed March 22, 1886, to John T. Underwood and Frederick W. Underwood, for a "reproducing surface for type-writing and manifolding," the claim being for

"A sheet of material or fabric coated with a composition composed of a precipitate of dye matter, obtained as described, in combination with oil, wax, or oleaginous matter, substantially as and for the purposes set forth,"

it appeared that letters patent No. 348,072, had been granted to the plaintiffs August 24, 1886, on an application filed March 22, 1886, the claim of which was for

"The coloring composition herein described for the manufacture of a substitute for carbon-paper, composed of a precipitate of dye matter, in combination with oil, wax, or oleaginous matter, substantially as set forth."

The suit was not brought on No. 348,072. The only difference in the two patents was that No. 348,073 was for spreading upon paper the composition described in No. 348,072. Held that, in view of earlier patents and publications, there was no novelty in taking a coloring substance already known and applying it to paper; that the omission to claim in No. 348,073, the composition of matter described in it was a disclaimer of it, as being public property, and that there was no invention in applying it to paper, as claimed in No. 348,073.

The case is stated in the opinion.

Page 149 U. S. 225