6449. PATENTS, Combinations in.—
If
we have a right to use three things separately,
I see nothing in reason, or in the patent law,
which forbids our using them all together. A
man has a right to use a saw, an axe, a plane
separately; may he not combine their uses on
the same piece of wood? He has a right to use
his knife to cut his meat, a fork to hold it;
may a patentee take from him the right to continue
their use on the same subject? Such a
law, instead of enlarging our conveniences, as
was intended, would most fearfully abridge
them, and crowd us by monopolies out of the
use of the things we have.—
To Oliver Evans. Washington ed. vi, 298.
(M.
1814)
