Principle

1.

A fundamental truth; an elementary proposition; a settled rule of action or procedure.

Compare Maxim. 2.

In patent law, a fundamental truth, an original cause. These cannot be patented, as no one can claim in either of them an exclusive right. The processes used to extract, modify, and concentrate natural agencies, constitute the invention. The elements of the power exist; the invention is not in discovering them, but in applying them to useful objects. There is no authority for granting a patent for a "principle," an idea, or any other abstraction. The principle of a machine is "its mode of operation," or that peculiar combination of devices which distinguish it from other machines. The machine is not the principle or the idea. To make useful and patentable the discovery of a new principle, it must be applied to a practical purpose. The practical application to some useful purpose is the test of its value. When mechanical devices operate substantially in the same way, producing a similar result, they are considered the same in principle.

See Patent, 2.