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265 F. 1012

Docket No. 1296.

In re Duncan

District of Columbia District Court

Submitted March 10, 1920.

Decided May 3, 1920.)

District of Columbia District Court · decided 1920-05-03

<p>Patents ®=3101 — Claims which failed to point out invention were properly rejected. *</p> <p>Claims which failed to point out the invention, so that the experts of the Patent Office could understand definitely what they meant, as required by statute, were properly rejected after the applicant had been given ample opportunity to amend his claim to meet the requirements.</p> <p><gz=aFor other cases see same topic & KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests & Indexes</p>

2 counsel of record

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1920-05-03

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently April 1958

801920193019401950decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1Patents ®=3101 — Claims which failed to point out invention were properly rejected. *

¶2Claims which failed to point out the invention, so that the experts of the Patent Office could understand definitely what they meant, as required by statute, were properly rejected after the applicant had been given ample opportunity to amend his claim to meet the requirements.

¶3<gz=aFor other cases see same topic & KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests & Indexes

¶4Appeal from the Commissioner of Patents.

¶5Application by Harry E. Duncan for patent. Application rejected, and applicant appeals.

¶6Affirmed.

¶7Archibald Cox, of New York City, W. G. Henderson, of Washington, D. C., and Harry A. English, of New York City, for appellant.

¶8T. A. Hostetler, of Washington, D. C., for Commissioner of Patents.

¶9VAN ORSDEE, Associate Justice.

¶10Appeal from rejection of application for patent for improvements for speed and distance indicator records for use on railroad locomotives.

¶11The rejection of the appealed claims is on the ground that they fail to point out invention. The statute requires an applicant to so formulate his claims that the experts of the Patent Office may understand definitely what they mean, and the invention must be so distinctly described as to be understood by one ordinarily skilled in the art to which the invention belongs.

¶12We agree with the tribunals below that, for the reasons suggested, the claims should be rejected. Appellant, however, has little room for complaint, since his attention was called to the condition of his claims at every stage of the proceeding. The Commissioner found that—

“The applicant has an invention and is entitled to a reasonable number of claiming clauses covering it; and upon revision of the claims, as herein suggested, the patent will be allowed.”

¶13On application for rehearing, the Commissioner again attempted to aid the applicant in the protection of his rights by entering the following order;

*1013“The applicant’s claims have been considered twice, and so far as this office is concerned, they are finally rejected, and patent refused, in the present form of the claims. In view or the obvious good faith of the petition Cor rehearing. the time for the applicant to submit a small set of claims, each of which distinguishes from every other in patenth'ble .substance, is extended, an additional 30 days. Otherwise, the petition is denied.”

¶14The decision of the Commissioner of Patents is affirmed, and the clerk is directed to certify these proceedings as by law required.

¶15Affirmed.

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