Search Results - United States Supreme Court, the Bate Refrigerating Company, appellant, vs. George H. Hammond & Co. brief for appellant : R.S. section 4887 "No person shall be debarred from receiving a patent for his invention or discovery, nor shall any patent be declared invalid by reason of its having been first patented, or caused to be patented in a foreign country, unless the same has been introduced into public use in the united states for more than two years prior to the application but every patent granted for an invention which has been previously patented in a foreign country shall be so limited as to expire at the same time with the foreign patent, or if there be more than one, at the same time with the one having the shortest term, and in no case shall it be inforce more than seventeen years."