CHAPTER VIII
DECISIONS AND NOTES
The following digest will be found to contain much useful information for the patentee, it being a carefully selected list of decisions affecting assignments, territorial grants, licenses, State laws, etc.; including those rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States, the Circuit Court of Appeals, State Courts, and of various Commissioners of Patents, all of which decisions enunciate well-settled and controlling principles of Patent Law.
Assignments.
Assignments of patents are not required to be under seal. The statutes simply provide that "every patent, or any interest therein shall be assignable in law by an instrument in writing." (Gottfried vs. Miller, U. S. S. C. Decided Jan. 23, 1882.)
A contract assigning a patent and all future improvements thereon is enforceable against assignees of such improvements who take notice of the contract. (Westinghouse Air Brake Co. vs. Chicago Brake and Mfg. Co., 85 F. R., 786.)
Each co-owner of a patent may use his right[p. 80] without the concurrence of the others and license at will. (Washburn & Moen Co. vs. Chicago Wire Fence Co., 109 Ill., 71.)
Owners of a patent are tenants in common, and each, as an incident of his ownership, has the right to use the patent or manufacture under it. But neither can be compelled by his co-owner to join in such use or work, or be liable for the losses which may occur, or to account for the profits which may arise from such use. (De Witt vs. Elmira Nobles Mfg. Co., 12 N. Y. Spur., 301.)
Joint owners of a patent, right are not copartners, and in the absence of any express contract each is at liberty to use his moiety as he may think fit, without any liability to or accounting to the other for profits or losses. (Vose vs. Singer, 4 Allen (Mass.), 226; vide Pitt vs. Hall, 3 Blatch., 201.)