The History of the Register of Original Writs: III

F. W. Maitland
1889 Harvard Law Review  
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more » ... ntent at http://about.jstor.org/participate--jstor/individuals/early-journal--content. JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary source objects. JSTOR helps people discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content through a powerful research and teaching platform, and preserves this content for future generations. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not--for--profit organization that also includes Ithaka S+R and Portico. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. 2I2 HA RVARD LA W REVIEW. This cursory examination of some of the decisions affecting the question of infringement of patents will suffice to show how well the courts have succeeded in arriving at substantial justice in cases which involve the application of legal principles to a wholly new kind of facts, where the main questions are of mechanics, and in most cases, questions calling for the highest degree of mechanical skill, as well as a general knowlecdge of the state of the mechanical arts. Whether the present method of deciding such questions is the best possible one, seems to be somewhat doubtful, in view of the great additional labor which such cases throw upon the Supreme and Circuit Courts, and a movement has been made in the direction of establishing a court for the especial purpose of trying patent cases, with a limited appeal only to the Supreme Court. Such an arrangement would be regarded with favor by those lawyers whose business is in that line, and would unquestionably advance the speedy trial of these and other cases in the Supreme Court. I In my first article a few misprints occurred which I may be allowed to correct. On page 99, line 20, for Henry II. read Henry III. I have not seen and hardly hope to see a Ms. Register of the twelfth century. The Cottonian Ms. referred to on page io is Julius D. II. The French words on page I should be a son ascient. The Cambridge MS. spoken of on page I 13 is Ii. vi. 13.
doi:10.2307/1321839 fatcat:dxj775kiqvf5zlsaqy6tpa5xbq