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Home » Law Dictionary » I » IDENTITY

IDENTITY

TheLaw.com Law Dictionary & Black's Law Dictionary 2nd Ed.

In the law of evidence.
Sameness; the fact that a subject, person, or thing before a court is the same as it is represented, claimed, or charged to be. See Burrill, Circ. Ev. 382, 453, 631, 644.
In patent law. Such sameness between two designs, inventions, combinations, etc., .as will constitute the one an infringement of the patent granted for the other.
To constitute “identity of invention,” and therefore infringement, not only must the result obtained be the same, but in case the means used for its attainment is a combination of known elements, the elements combined in both cases must be the same, and combined in the same way, so that each element shall perform the same function; provided that the differences alleged are not merely colorable according to the rule forbidding the use of known equivalents. Electric Railroad Signal Co. v. Hall Railroad Signal Co., 114 U. S? 87, 5 Sup. Ct 1069, 29 L. Ed. 96; Latta v. Shawk, 14 Fed. Cas. 1188. “Identity of design” means sameness of appearance, or, in other words, sameness of effect upon the eye, not the eye of an expert, but of an ordinary intelligent observer. Smith v. Whitman Saddle Co., 148 U. S. 674, IB Sup. Ct 768, 37 L. Ed. 606.

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