DOLBEAR v. AMERICAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY

Nos. 10, 361, 362, 709, 770, 771.

126 U.S. 1 (1888)

DOLBEAR v. AMERICAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY. MOLECULAR TELEPHONE COMPANY v. AMERICAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY. AMERICAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY v. MOLECULAR TELEPHONE COMPANY. CLAY COMMERCIAL TELEPHONE COMPANY v. AMERICAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY. PEOPLE'S TELEPHONE COMPANY v. AMERICAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY. OVERLAND TELEPHONE COMPANY v. AMERICAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY.

Supreme Court of United States.

Decided March 19, 1888.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Mr. J.E. Maynadier for Dolbear. Mr. Causten Browne was with Mr. Maynadier on the brief.1

Mr. Grosvenor P. Lowrey for the Molecular Telephone Company. Mr. Wheeler H. Peckham and Mr. H.D. Donnelly were with him on the brief.

Mr. George F. Edmunds for the People's Telephone Company, and for the Overland Telephone Company.

Mr. James J. Storrow for the American Bell Telephone Company in reply to the arguments about the Drawbaugh defence.

Mr. E.N. Dickerson for the American Bell Telephone Company.

Mr. Causten Browne for Dolbear.

Mr. Wheeler H. Peckham for the Molecular Telephone Company.

Mr. Charles P. Crosby for the Overland Company.


MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WAITE delivered the opinion of the court.

The important question which meets us at the outset in each of these cases is as to the scope of the fifth claim of the patent of March 7, 1876, which is as follows:

"The method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically, as herein described, by causing electrical undulations, similar...

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