TWENTY-FOURTH CONGRESS. Sess. I. Ch. 357. 1836.

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Sec. 14. And. be it further enacted, That whenever, in any actionfor damages for making, using, or selling the thing whereof the exclu-sive right is secured by any patent heretofore granted, or by any patentwhich may hereafter be granted, a verdict shall be rendered for theplaintiff in such action, it shall be in the power of the court to renderjudgment for any sum above the amount found by such verdict as theactual damages sustained by the plaintiff, not exceeding three times theamount thereof, according to the circumstances of the case, with costs ;and such damages may be recovered by action on the case, in any courtof competent jurisdiction, to be brought in the name or names of theperson or persons interested, whether as patentees, assignees, or asgrantees of the exclusive right within and throughout a specified partof the United States .

Sf.c. 15. And be it further enacted, That the defendant in any suchaction shall be permitted to plead the general issue, and to give this actand any special matter in evidence, of which notice in writing mayhave been given to the plaintiff or his attorney, thirty days before trial,tending to prove that the description and specification filed by plaintiffdoes not contain the whole truth relative to his invention or discovery,or that it contains more than is necessary to produce the describedeffect; which concealment or addition shall fully appear to have beenmade for the purpose of deceiving the public, or that the patentee wasnot the original and first inventor or discoverer of the thing patented,or of a substantial and material part thereof claimed as new, or that ithad been described in some public work anterior to the supposed disco-very thereof by the patentee, or had been in public use, or on sale, withthe consent and allowance of the patentee before his application for apatent, or that he had surreptitiously or unjustly obtained the patent forthat which was in fact invented or discovered by another, who wasusing reasonable diligence in adapting and perfecting the same; or thatthe patentee, if an alien at the time the patent was granted, had failedand neglected for the space of eighteen months from the date of thepatent, to put and continue on sale to the public, on reasonable terms,the invention or discovery for which the patent issued; in either ofwhich cases judgment shall be rendered for the defendant, with costs.And whenever the defendant relies in his defence on the fact of a pre-vious invention, knowledge, or use of the thing patented, he shall state,in his notice of special matter, the names and places of residence ofthose whom he intends to prove to have possessed a prior knowledge ofthe thing, and where the same had been used : Provided, however, Thatwhenever it shall satisfactorily appear that the patentee, at the time ofmaking his application for the patent, believed himself to be the firstinventor or discoverer of the thing patented, the same shall not be heldto be void on account of the invention or discovery or any part thereofhaving been before known or used in any foreign country, it not appear-ing that the same or any substantial part thereof had before beenpatented or described in any printed publication. And provided, also,That whenever the plaintiff shall fail to sustain his action on the groundthat in his specification of claim is embraced more than that of which hewas the first inventor, if it shall appear that the defendant had used orviolated any part of the invention justly and truly specified and claimedas new, it shall be in the power of the court to adjudge and award asto costs as may appear to be just and equitable.

Sec. 16. And be it further enacted, That whenever there shall betwo interfering patents, or whenever a patent on application shall havebeen refused on an adverse decision of a board of examiners, on theground that the patent applied for would interfere with an unexpiredpatent previously granted, any person interested in any such patent,either by assignment or otherwise, in the one case, and any such appli-

Courts mayrender judg-ment for a sumnot exceedingthree times theamount of ac-tual damages.

Defendantmay plead thegeneral issue

Proviso.

Proviso.

Interfering pa-tents, &c.