Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia (Volume 37)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912. Excerpt: ... Syllabus. 37 App. grant; but in our judgment neither reason nor authority sanctions an estoppel against the first and true inventor, unless the later comer has cut in between, and made the public his debtor by being the first to get to the Patent Office or the market. In Burson v. Vogel, 29 App. D. C. 388, it did not appear that the first to conceive suppressed or intended to conceal knowledge of his invention after its reduction to practice. It is therefore not an authority in support of the decision of the Commissioner, notwithstanding some general expressions that may seem to conflict, to some extent, with the decision now made in regard to the use of the machine of Brune in the factory. The facts of the two cases on this point are quite different. Believing that there was error in the decision awarding priority to Brune, it will be reversed. It is so ordered, and that this decision be certified to the Commissioner of Patents, as the law requires. Reversed. A petition for a rehearing was denied October 5, 1911. m RE MATTULATH. Courts; Appeal And Ereor; Commissioner or Patents; Poor Persons. 1. This court, although a court of the United States, is not, strictly speak ing, a circuit court of appeals, notwithstanding its functions are analogous by reason of its being an intermediate court of appeals between the District of Columbia courts of original jurisdiction and the Supreme Court of the United States. 2. In the exercise of his functions, the decisions of the Commissioner of Patents in the matter of applications for patents and interferences between applicants affect private as well as public interests. In such decisions, he exercises a function judicial in its nature, and for that reason statutes authorizing appeal therefrom to the courts are with...