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Exhausted combination doctrine
The exhausted combination doctrine, also referred to as the doctrine of the ''Lincoln Engineering'' case, is the doctrine of U.S. patent law that when an inventor invents a new, unobvious device and seeks to patent not merely the new device but also the combination of the new device with a known, conventional device with which the new device cooperates in the conventional and predictable way in which devices of those types have previously cooperated, the combination is unpatentable as an "exhausted combination" or "old combination".〔For example, consider the invention of a new microprocessor, which is patentable in its own right. Suppose that the inventor seeks to patent computers containing the new microprocessor, where the microprocessor cooperates with the other elements of the computers in the same conventional way that microprocessors have previously cooperated with the other elements of computers. The computer with the new microprocessor would be an exhausted combination. This hypothetical case is based on the facts of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in ''Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc.'', 128 S. Ct. 2109 (2008).〕 The doctrine is also termed the doctrine of the ''Lincoln Engineering'' case because the United States Supreme Court explained the doctrine in its decision in ''Lincoln Engineering Co. v. Stewart-Warner Corp.''〔(Justia ) and (FindLaw ), 303 U.S. 545 (1938)].〕
==The ''Lincoln Engineering'' decision==
In ''Lincoln Engineering'', the inventor invented a new and improved coupling device to attach a nozzle to a grease gun. The patent, however, claimed the whole combination of grease gun, nozzle, and coupling. The Supreme Court stated that "the improvement of one part of an old combination gives no right to claim that improvement in combination with other old parts which perform no new function in the combination".〔303 U.S. at 549-50.〕 It then concluded that the inventor's "effort, by the use of a combination claim, to extend the monopoly of his invention of an improved form of chuck or coupler to old parts or elements having no new function when operated in connection with the coupler renders the claim void."〔303 U.S. at 552.〕
This way of claiming an invention was termed “overclaiming,” because it inflated the royalty base for licensing and potentially effectuated a tie-in by means of which the patentee required users, for example, to purchase not only the couplings but the whole grease gun as well in order to use the invention.〔See (''Landis on Mechanics of Patent Claim Drafting'' ) § 8:4.〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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