Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Masse chusetts. TO THE HON. PELEG SPRAGUE, JUDGE OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, THESE VOLUMES ARE, WITH SENTIMENTS OF SINCERE RESPECT AND AFFECTION, INSCRIBED, BY THE EDITOR. PREFACE. THE collection of cases embraced in these two volumes, contain all of the Patent Cases decided in the Circuit Courts of the United States and reported prior to the first of January, 1850; and all of the cases decided in the Supreme Court of the United States to the same period. They are arranged as nearly as may be in chronological order; numbering one hundred and twenty-four cases, selected from sixty volumes of Reports, namely: Washington, Brockenboro', Peters, McLean, Paine, Gilpin, Gallison, Mason, Wallace, Sumner, Baldwin, Story, and Woodbury and Minot, of the Circuit Court Reports;-and Cranch, Wheaton, Peters, and Howard, of the Supreme Court Reports, thus embracing all of the decisions illustrating the principles of the Patent Laws of the United States. A few cases have been decided by the State Courts, involving, incidentally, questions arising under the Patent Laws, which have been omitted, as not affecting the principles or doctrines settled by the United States Courts. Exclusive jurisdiction of these subjects, in the administration of the Patent Laws, being vested in the United States Circuit and Supreme Courts. The decisions upon the earlier statutes, in all cases The Index embraces, all of the topics discussed and It is proposed to continue this collection by the It is much to be regretted that the numerous deci- Such of these decisions, however, as may have been JAMES B. ROBB. BOSTON, MAY 1st, 1854. |