O'Reilly v. Morse
United States Supreme Court
56 U.S. (15 How.) 62 (1853)
- Written by Samantha Arena, JD
Facts
Samuel Morse (plaintiff) was issued a patent for his telegraph in 1840 and again in 1848. Morse’s two patent applications claimed that Morse had ownership rights to the telegraph machinery that he had described in his application’s specifications. However, in the eighth claim in Morse’s patent application, Morse also claimed ownership rights to any future invention that used electro-magnetism to print characters or letters at a distance. In 1845, Henry O’Reilly (defendant) installed a telegraph system in Kentucky and Tennessee. Morse sued O’Reilly for patent infringement in the United States Circuit Court for the District of Kentucky. The circuit court upheld the validity of Morse’s patent and found that O’Reilly had committed patent infringement. O’Reilly appealed to the United States Supreme Court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Taney, C.J.)
Dissent (Grier, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 798,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,200 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.