Your Free Online Legal Dictionary • Featuring Black’s Law Dictionary, 2nd Ed.

MACHINE Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

In patent law. Any contrivance used to regulate or augment force or motion; more properly, a complex structure, cousisting of a combination, or peculiar modification, of the mechanical powers.The term “machine,” in patent law, includes every mechanical device, or combination of mechanical powers and devices, to perform some function and produce a certain effect or result. But where the result or effect is produced by chemical action, by the operation or application of some element or power of nature, or of one substance to another, such modes, methods, or operations are called “processes.” A new process is usually the result of discovery; a machine, of invention. Corning v. Burden, 15 How. 252. 267, 14 L. Ed. 683. And see Pittsburgh Reduction Co. v. Cowles Electric Co. (C. C.) 55 Fed. 316 ; Westinghouse v. Boyden Power Brake Co.. 170 U. S. 537, 18 Sup. Ct. 707, 42 L. Ed. 1136; Burr v. Durvee, 1 Wall. 570, 17 L. Ed. 650: Stearns v. Russell, 85 Fed. 225, 29 C. C. A. 121; Wintermute v. Redington, 30 Fed. Cas. 370.

Disclaimer

This article contains general legal information but does not constitute professional legal advice for your particular situation. The Law Dictionary is not a law firm, and this page does not create an attorney-client or legal adviser relationship. If you have specific questions, please consult a qualified attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.