Gayler v. Wilder

51 U.S. (10 How.) 477 (1850)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Conner made a safe for his own use between the years 1829 and 1832, for the protection of his papers against fire. He continued to use it until 1838 when it passed into other hands. It was kept in his counting-room and known to the persons engaged in the foundry; and after it passed out of his hands, he used others of a different construction. After it passed from Conner’s possession, there is no evidence of what it was used for nor that anyone who had possession even knew what it was. In 1843, Fitzgerald invented and obtained a patent for a fireproof safe that was substantially similar to Conner’s. Fitzgeralds’s patent was assigned to P. P sued Gayler (D) for infringement. D defended by claiming that P’s patent was invalid as Fitzgerald was not the first inventor. The court instructed the jury, 'that if Conner had not made his discovery public but had used it simply for his own private purpose, and it had been finally forgotten or abandoned, such a discovery and use would be no obstacle to the taking out of a patent by Fitzgerald or those claiming under him, if he be an original, though not the first, inventor or discoverer.' P got the verdict and D appealed.