Exhausted Combination Doctrine Law and Legal Definition
Exhausted combination doctrine is a principle adopted in the U.S. patent law. According to this principle, the combination of a new and unobvious device cannot be patented when the combination of such device cooperates with a conventional device in a predictable way. This principle is also known as the doctrine of the Lincoln Engineering case. This doctrine was developed by the Supreme Court in Lincoln Engineering Co. v. Stewart-Warner Corp. [303 U.S. 545 (U.S. 1938)]. The court in this case ruled: “the improvement of one part of an old combination gives no right to claim that improvement in combination with other old parts which perform no new function in the combination.”
