Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/905

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

PUTNAM V. HOLLBHDER. 893 �tober 21, 1879." It bas an arrangement of neck band, lever, yoke, and rigid upper part of stopper, with three pivotai con- nections, wbich, if the whole stopper had been a perfect com- pound stopper, as the stopper of the plaintiffs' patent is, composed of substantially such an elastic part as said patent sbows, with Buch rigid upper part, and if the whole combina- tion of compound stopper, yoke, lever, and neek-band had been capable of operating in the way the combination set forth in the first claim of the plaintiffs' re-issue operates, to produce effectively the results produced by that combination, would have been an anticipation of that claim and of the sec- ond claim. The rule laid down by the supreme court in Cqffin V. Ogden, 18 Wall, 120, 124, is as follows : "The inven- tion or discovery relied upon as a defence must have been complete, and capable of producing the resuit sought to be accomplished; and this must be shown by the defendant. The burden of proof rests upon him, and every reasonable doubt should be resolved against him. If the thing were embryotio or inchoate ; if it rested in speculation or experi- ment; if the prooess pursued for its development had failed to reach the point of consummation, — it cannot avail to defeat a patent founded upon a discovery or invention which was completed, while in the other case there was only progress, however near that progress may have approximated to the end in view. The law requires not conjecture, but certainty. If the question relates to a machine, the conception must have been clothed in substantial forms which demonstrate at once its practical efficaoy and utility. Beid v. Cutter, 1 Story, 590. The prior knowledge and use by a single person is suf&cient. The number is immaterial. Bedford v. Hunt, 1 Mason, 302, Until his work is donc the inventer bas given nothing to the public," �Otto kept a beer saloon. He made only one such structure. He put it upon a bottle. He put beer into the bottle, and had the bottle and structure in his saloon. It was seen by many persons, who saw what it was and worked it, so far as it was capable of being worked. Glasses of beer were poured out of the bottle for customers, and it was refilled. Otto ��� �