first inventor
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 270 U.S. 390 - Alexander Milburn Co. v. Davis-Bournonville Co. · 1926Most cited · 721 citing opinions
one is not the first inventor if, as was the case here, somebody else has made a complete and adequate description of the thing claimed before the earliest moment to which the alleged inventor can carry his invention back
How often courts cite the cases defining “first inventor”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “first inventor” — 749 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 1868–1926
- ORIGINAL
he is the first inventor, and entitled to the patent, who, being an original discoverer, has first perfected and adapted the invention to actual use