Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/343

 336 JCSDEBlIi KEPOBTBB. �ornament, prînt, or picture to be printed, paînted, cast, or otherwise placed on or worked into any article of manufac- ture; or any new, useful, and original shape or configura- tion of any article of manufacture, the same not having been known or used by others before bis invention or production tbereof. �The subject of tbis patent isnot covered by tbis statute un- less it is included in the term "manufacture." The buttons are, bowever, the principal thing; and they are not changed at ail, either in form or appearance, by the patented inven- tion. It afïects notbing but the card; and that is not a card for buttons, to be used for successive sets, but a card of but- tons, which constitutes a mere metbod of putting them up for sale, to attract customers; not on account of anything at ail about the tbing sold, but ■wholly on account of the manner of arranging it for sale. �luLangdon v. De Groat, 1 Paine, C. C. Eep. 203, the in- vention was for folding thread and floss cotton in a manner different from the ordinary mode, -whereby it would sell quicker and higher. The court said : �"The article itself undergoes no change; and the whole of the împrovement — for it is a patent for an improvement — consista in putting up skeins of it, perhaps of the same size in which they are imported, decorated with a label and wrap- per, thus rendering tbeir appearance somewhat more attract- ive, and inducing the unwary not only to give it a preference to other cotton of the same fabric, quality, and texture, but to pay an extravagant premium for it. �"Now, that such contrivance — for with vrhat propriety can it be termed a useful art, under the constitution — may be ben- efi.oial to a patentee, if he can exclude from the market ail other retailers of the vfery same article, will not be denied ; and if to protect the interest of the patentee, hovyever frivo- lous, useless, or deoeptive his invention may be, were the sole objôet of the la-w, it must be admitted that the plaintiff haa i!(iad,e <5ùt a- «aitisfactory title to his patent. But, if the utility o^fiiQ invention is to be tested by the advantages which the Iiu^blic arç to derive frorû it, it will not be perceived bo^ thia ����