[1162] Seymour v. Osborne, 11 Wall. 516, 549 (1871). Cf. Union Paper Collar Co. v. Van Dusen, 23 Wall. 530, 563 (1875); Reckendorfer v. Faber, 92 U.S. 347, 356 (1876).
[1163] Smith v. Nichols, 21 Wall. 112, 118 (1875).
[1164] Rubber-Tip Pencil Co. v. Howard, 20 Wall. 498, 507 (1874); Clark Thread Co. v. Willimantic Linen Co., 140 U.S. 481, 489 (1891).
[1165] Funk Bros. Seed Co. v. Kalo Co., 333 U.S. 127, 130 (1948). Cf. Dow Chemical Co. v. Halliburton Co., 324 U.S. 320 (1945); Cuno Corp. v. Automatic Devices Corp., 314 U.S. 84, 89 (1941).
[1166] Sinclair & Carroll Co. v. Interchemical Corp., 325 U.S. 327 (1945); Marconi Wireless Teleg. Co. v. United States, 320 U.S. 1 (1943).
[1167] Keystone Mfg. Co. v. Adams, 151 U.S. 139 (1894); Diamond Rubber Co. v. Consolidated Tire Co., 220 U.S. 428 (1911).
[1168] Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equipment Corp., 340 U.S. 147 (1950). An interesting concurring opinion was filed by Justice Douglas for himself and Justice Black: "It is not enough," says Justice Douglas, "that an article is new and useful. The Constitution never sanctioned the patenting of gadgets. Patents serve a higher end—the advancement of science. An invention need not be as startling as an atomic bomb to be patentable. But it has to be of such quality and distinction that masters of the scientific field in which it falls will recognize it as an advance." Ibid. 154-155. He then quotes the following from an opinion of Justice Bradley's given 70 years ago:
"It was never the object of those laws to grant a monopoly for every trifling device, every shadow of a shade of an idea, which would naturally and spontaneously occur to any skilled mechanic or operator in the ordinary progress of manufactures. Such an indiscriminate creation of exclusive privileges tends rather to obstruct than to stimulate invention. It creates a class of speculative schemers who make it their business to watch the advancing wave of improvement, and gather its foam in the form of patented monopolies, which enable them to lay a heavy tax upon the industry of the country, without contributing anything to the real advancement of the arts. It embarrasses the honest pursuit of business with fears and apprehensions of concealed liens and unknown liabilities to lawsuits and vexatious accountings for profits made in good faith. (Atlantic Works v. Brady, 107 U.S. 192, 200 (1882))." Ibid. 155.
The opinion concludes: "The attempts through the years to get a broader, looser conception of patents than the Constitution contemplates have been persistent. The Patent Office, like most administrative agencies, has looked with favor on the opportunity which the exercise of discretion affords to expand its own jurisdiction. And so it has placed a host of gadgets under the armour of patents—gadgets that obviously have had no place in the constitutional scheme of advancing scientific knowledge. A few that have reached this Court show the pressure to extend monopoly to the simplest of devices:
"Hotchkiss v. Greenwood, 11 How. 248 (1850): Doorknob made of clay rather than metal or wood, where different shaped doorknobs had previously been made of clay.