ality and distinction that masters of the scientific field in which it
falls will recognize it as an advance." Ibid. 154-155. He then quotes
the following from an opinion of Justice Bradley's given 70 years ago:

"It was never the object of those laws to grant a monopoly for every
trifling device, every shadow of a shade of an idea, which would
naturally and spontaneously occur to any skilled mechanic or operator in
the ordinary progress of manufactures. Such an indiscriminate creation
of exclusive privileges tends rather to obstruct than to stimulate
invention. It creates a class of speculative schemers who make it their
business to watch the advancing wave of improvement, and gather its foam
in the form of patented monopolies, which enable them to lay a heavy tax
upon the industry of the country, without contributing anything to the
real advancement of the arts. It embarrasses the honest pursuit of
business with fears and apprehensions of concealed liens and unknown
liabilities to lawsuits and vexatious accountings for profits made in
good faith. (Atlantic Works _v._ Brady, 107 U.S. 192, 200 (1882))."
Ibid. 155.

The opinion concludes: "The attempts through the years to get a broader,
looser conception of patents than the Constitution contemplates have
been persistent. The Patent Office, like most administrative agencies,
has looked with favor on the opportunity which the exercise of
discretion affords to expand its own jurisdiction. And so it has placed
a host of gadgets under the armour of patents--gadgets that obviously
have had no place in the constitutional scheme of advancing scientific
knowledge. A few that have reached this Court show the pressure to
extend monopoly to the simplest of devices:

"Hotchkiss _v._ Greenwood, 11 How. 248 (1850): Doorknob made of clay
rather than metal or wood, where different shaped doorknobs had
previously been made of clay.

"Rubber-Tip Pencil Co. _v._ Howard, 20 Wall. 498 (1874): Rubber caps put
on wood pencils to serve as erasers.

"Union Paper Collar Co. _v._ Van Dusen, 23 Wall. 530 (1875): Making
collars of parchment paper where linen paper and linen had previously
been used.

"Brown _v._ Piper, 91 U.S. 37 (1875): A method for preserving fish by
freezing them in a container operating in the same manner as an ice
cream freezer.

"Reckendorfer _v._ Faber, 92 U.S. 347 (1876): Inserting a piece of
rubber in a slot in the end of a wood pencil to serve as an eraser.

"Dal