Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/612

 59S FSDESAL BEPOBTKB. �one-third interest in the as yet unpatented improyements, which he had not assigned, by the paper of September 19, 1876, inasmuch as there were no rights transferred to Eandel by that paper, and there was nothing secured to Eandel by that paper; and that, therefore, by that paper, Eandel assigned nothing but his one-third remaining interest in patent No. 166,810. But the paper has a wider seope. It refers to the prier instrument by its date and place of record, and identifies it as conveying sorflething more than an interest in patent No. 166,810. The expression in regard to Downer is that he de- sires to obtain "the exclusive right, and all the right, title, and inter- est, " — that is, the whole title, exclusive of every one else, — in and to the letters patent and rights transferred by the prior paper. It does not say "the said letters patent," confining it to No. 166,810, but it says "the letters patent and rights transferred by the prior paper." Now, in substance, two-thirds of any new patent for any improve- ments already made vyere transferred by the prior paper. Those were the rights that were transferred by the prior paper. �The second paper wasframed to transfer to Downer "the exclusive right, and all the right, title, and interest," in such new patent, as well as in the old patent, of all whicb he before had but an undivided one-third. So, in the granting part, when the paper conveys "all the right, title, and interest of Eandel and Smith in and to said inventions, as secured to us by said letters patent and assignment," it means all their interest "in said inventions;" that is, the inven- tions "transferred by," or the subjeot of transfer in, the prier assign- ment. The words "as secured to us by said letters patent" mean "as secured to us by the letters patent transferred to us by the prior assignment," which includes the new patent. The paper is unskil- fully drawn, but is capable of such construction, and it is in the interest of fair dealing that it shoald be so construed, in a court of equity. in favor of those who are prior in time and have acted in good faith. �Downer, being thus the equitable owner of the inventions which Eandel had so made and had not patented, conveyed to House the undivided half of all the rights which he had so received, and Downer and House conveyed to the Eandel Button-Hole Machine Company all of the rights which either of them had so received, which they possessed. That company thus became the owner of the improve- ments embraced in patent No. 192,008, and the owner of the equita- ble title to that patent, as against Eandel, before the co-defendants with Eandel acquired any interest in said improvements. The omjs- ��� �