Benjamin F. Tabor, Respondent v. William M. Hoffman Appellant

Summary

The Court affirmed the lower court's injunction prohibiting the defendant from using the plaintiff's secret pattern designs for the rotary pump, holding that the patterns remained a protectable secret despite the pump itself being publicly sold and the original patent having expired. The Court reasoned that common law grants an inventor exclusive property in his invention until it is published, and the patterns were not disclosed. A dissent argued that the plaintiff had lost any exclusive right after the patent expired and the improved pump was sold, and therefore the injunction was improper.