A U.S. trustee in bankruptcy takes title to all rights of the bankrupt in issued patents as of the date of the adjudication in bankruptcy, but not to unpatented inventions. The receiver of a corporation appointed by a State court, however, takes only the equitable title to the patents of the corporation, and an assignment executed by an officer of the corporation is necessary to complete the legal title, or one executed in the name of the corporation by some one designated in an order of the court having jurisdiction.
Any patent, which is inoperative or invalid by reason of a defective or insufficient specification, or because of too broad a claim, if the error has arisen by accident or mistake and without any fraudulent intention, may be reissued for the unexpired term. The application must be signed and sworn to by the inventor, if living. If a reissue application seeks to broaden the claim, it must be filed within two years of the grant of the original patent, unless there is a very good excuse for delay. Another remedy when a patent has too broad a claim is to limit it by disclaimer filed in the Patent Office. Any claim added by reissue takes effect as to recovery of damages for infringement only from the date of said reissue.
The U.S. courts alone have jurisdiction of suits for infringement of letters patent, but State courts may adjudicate questions of validity and infringement which arise collaterally in suits of which they otherwise have jurisdiction. The U.S. courts
do not have jurisdiction of suits based on assignments of, or licences under, patents unless the parties are citizens of different States. The remedies for infringement include an injunction against continuance thereof, and a recovery of the damages the plaintiff has suffered, or of the profits the infringer has realized, from the making, using or selling of the patented thing or process. The Government may be sued for infringement in the U.S. Court of Claims and reasonable compensation therefor recovered. The Government may not be enjoined from continuing the infringing use or manufacture. Patents can be annulled for fraud perpe trated in obtaining them only by suit instituted by the U.S. attorney general.
If a patented article, or the package in which it is sold is not marked "Patent" with the number of the patent, or "Patented" with the patent date if granted prior to April 1, 1927, no damages can be recovered for infringements committed prior to actual notice of infringement given by the patent owner to the infringer. False marking with the word "patent * * or any word of like import" renders the offender liable to a fine of $ioo for each offence.
pamphlet of Patent Laws as amended to Oct. I, 1927, and pamphlet of Rules of Practice in the Patent Office; Robin son, Law of Patents (189o) ; Walker on Patents (1917) ; Roberts, Patentability of Inventions (1927). (A. P.-S.)