The exhausted combination doctrine, also referred to as the doctrine of the Lincoln Engineering case, is the doctrine of U.S. patent law that when an inventor invents a new, unobvious device and seeks to patent not merely the new device but also the combination of the new device with a known, conventional device with which the new device cooperates in the conventional and predictable way in which devices of those types have previously cooperated, the combination is unpatentable as an "exhausted combination" or "old combination". The doctrine is also termed the doctrine of the Lincoln Engineering case because the United States Supreme Court explained the doctrine in its decision in Lincoln Engineering Co. v. Stewart-Warner Corp.
Read more about Exhausted Combination Doctrine: The Lincoln Engineering Decision, Is The Lincoln Engineering Doctrine Obsolete?, Exhausted Combinations and Nonstatutory Subject Matter, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words exhausted, combination and/or doctrine:
“You behold a range of exhausted volcanoes. Not a flame flickers on a single pallid crest.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“Let him [the President] once win the admiration and confidence of the country, and no other single force can withstand him, no combination of forces will easily overpower him.... If he rightly interpret the national thought and boldly insist upon it, he is irresistible; and the country never feels the zest of action so much as when the President is of such insight and caliber.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Among the best traitors Ireland has ever had, Mother Church ranks at the very top, a massive obstacle in the path to equality and freedom. She has been a force for conservatism, not on the basis of preserving Catholic doctrine or preventing the corruption of her children, but simply to ward off threats to her own security and influence.”
—Bernadette Devlin (b. 1947)