The power of doing. something not taught by nature or instinct. Johnson. Eunomus defines art to be a collection of certain rules for doing anything in a set form. The Dictionaire des Sciences Medicales, h. v., defines it in nearly the same terms. 2. The arts are divided into mechanical and liberal arts. The mechanical arts are those which require more bodily than mental labor; they are usually called trades, and those who pursue them are called artisans or mechanics. The liberal are those which have for the sole or principal object, works of the mind, and those who are engaged in them are called artists. 3. The act of Congress of July 4, 1836, s. 6, in describing the subjects of patents, uses the term art. The sense of this word in its usual acceptation is perhaps too comprehensive. The thing to be patented is not a mere elementary, principle, or intellectual discovery, but a principle put in practice, and applied to some art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
A principle put in practice and applied to some art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter. Earle v. Sawyer, 4 Mason, 1, Fed. Cas. No. 4,247. See Act Cong. July 8, 1870. In the law of patents, this term means a useful art or manufacture which is beneficial and which is described with exactness in its mode of operation. Such an art can be protected only in the mode and to the extent thus described.