Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/573

 558 FEDERAL REPURTER. �This would be correct if no interest except his own were involved, for a man may do what he pleases with his own, and "volenti non fit injuria" would be, a fortiori, applicable in such a case. If a stranger were using the infringing patent this action would un- questionably lie against him; and the question before us is whether it will lie against a joint owner, or, in the language of the bill, whether he, under cover of his joint ownership, can infringe and escape liability. So far as he acts outside of his interests or rights or powers as a joint owndr there is no adequate' reason for treating him, quoad hoc, otherwise than as a stranger. If this be not so, then one joint owner may destroy, without remedy, the rights of the other joint owners. �Demurrer overruled. ���Nat. Feathee Dustbb Co. v. Hibbabd, {Circuit CouH, N. D. Illinois. November 26, 1881.) �1. Letters Patent — Feathbr Dustees— Rev. St. i 4918— Interfeeino Pat- �ents. �Letters patent No. 177,933, dated May 80, 1876, and issued to Biisan M. Hib- bard, for an improvement in feather dusters, hdd to interfere with letters patent Ko. 154,985, and set aside. �2. Ebtoppbl. �Under the oircumstances, Susan M. Hibbard is estopped to deny that her husband was the inventer of the device in controversy. �3. Invbntob. �One who made a valuable suggestion to the conceiver of the idea of substi- tuting, in a feather duster, feathera of the common domestic fowls in place of ostrich feathers, while he was engaged in a series of experiments with a view to discover some means whereby such feathers might be made pliable, did not, thereby, become the inventer of the duster. �Skeper e Whiton, for complainant. �West dt Bond, for defendant. �BiiODGBTT, D. J. This is a bill in equity, framed under section 4918 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, for the purpose of setting aside and declaring yoid a patent issued by the United States to Susan M. Hibbard, for "an improvement in feather dusters," dated May 30, 1876, and numbered 177,933, upon the ground that the patentee, Susan M. Hibbard, was not the inventor of the device described in and covered by the patent. �The, complainant claims to be the owner of patent No. 154,985, issued by the United States, on the fifteenth of September, 1874, to ��� �