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''Ex parte Wood'', , was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a patent could not be repealed based on summary proceedings without the opportunity for a jury trial. The case exemplifies a tradition in early 19th century United States patent caselaw in which patents were regarded specifically as an absolute property right to exclusive use of the invention,〔Adam Mossoff, Exclusion and Exclusive Use in Patent Law, 22 Harv. J.L. & Tech. 321, 351-52 (2009).〕 rather than requiring a balancing between public and private interests.〔Michael J. Meurer & Craig Allen Nard, Invention, Refinement and Patent Claim Scope: A New Perspective on the Doctrine of Equivalents, 93 Geo. L.J. 1947, 1957 (2005).〕 ==Background== In 1819, Jethro Wood patented a cast-iron moldboard plow with replaceable parts, which revolutionized American agriculture and laid the foundation for the later John Deere plow. His patent issued on September 1, 1819. But despite his invention's success, and although he was born to a wealthy Quaker family, he would die impoverished in 1834, having exhausted his funds on patent infringement suits. Among those suits was the action at issue here, in which Wood brought suit against Charles Wood and Gilbert Brundage in the Southern District of New York to invalidate their later patent on a similar plow, which had been issued on November 9, 1820.〔 (Because of the Patent Office fire of 1836, the actual patents at issue here are not extant.) The Patent Act of 1793 allowed a suit for invalidity to be brought within three years of the contested patent being issued. The district court issued a rule nisi, ordering Charles Wood and Gilbert Brundage to appear and show cause why their patent should not be invalidated. They did so, but their arguments were not satisfactory to the court, which ordered the patent repealed immediately by a rule absolute. They moved for a ''scire facias'' proceeding, to have a jury trial on the validity of their patent, but the judge denied their motion. Charles Wood and Gilbert Brundage then petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus to require the district court to issue a ''scire facias'' and try the question by jury. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ex parte Wood」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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