INVENTION (Lat. inrcatio, finding out, from inrcnire, to find, from in, in + erairc, to come). Literally, an act of making something not before made; also, the new• thing produeed. In the law of patent rights the tens invention is specifically applied to any new and useful art, machine. manufacture. or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, which when invented may tinder certain condi tions be made the subject of the rights of a letter patent. In great Britain the patent law expressly restricts such inventions to a 'new manufacture: but the courts have construed this tern so that it includes the four classes of in ventions above named. Although it has peen held that in the patent law 'discovery' and 'inven tion' are synonymous. in popular language and in much legal literature the term 'invention' has come to be used commonly to designate a 'patentable' invention, or one that is 'new' and useful.
To constitute an invention in this sense there must he a creating or origination of some useful thing that did not exist before, by means of an operation of the intellect. The extent of research and the simplicity or emnplexity of the result are of no importance. if the invention he new and useful. and be something more than a construc tion follow ing the beaten t rack of mechanical experience. Neither is any distinction made as to degree of usefulness or the amount of mechanical skill involved in the construction or making of the invention, so long as the usefulness or skill be not so slight. as to make it negligible. It is
no objection that the into was aided or as sisted by ideas derived from others. as long as the final concrete product invented l,e ,anething more and distinct from any one ur all of these ideas or suggestions. The difficulty in drawing the line as to what is and what is not an inten tion is great. Mire simplicity is no objection, and, indeed, may constitute the real and newness of the invention. Neither is the use or application of old devices or machines 7111 objection, for most patents arc issued upon illy tent ions based partly upon preexisting inventions. .1 advance (Jr extended application of an original invention, changed only in degree, and doing substantially the same thing in the same way by the same intalls, but with better results, is not an invention. There must be a 111•W idea grafted upon the old invention. By reason of the difficulty here referred to, the law is liberally ap plied to protect everything that might be properly called new and useful. See and el insult the inithorities there referred to The title was also given by .1, S. Ilneh to a collection of :10 short pieces in contrapuntal style, each developing only one theme. There are 15 two-part and 15 three-part inventions.