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Wallace, J.: There is no distinction between letters patent for an invention and for land as regards the rights and remedies for vacating them when obtained by fraud. The right is the same as that which a State has to annul the charter of a corporation created by its legislature if obtained by fraud. The appropriate remedy in behalf of the United States when a patent for an invention has been obtained by fraud is by a bill in equity. U. S. CIRCUIT COURT.--NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK. ROBERTS S. WALLEY. Coxe, J.: In a suit for the infringement of a patent,where the validity of the patent and the infringement are denied, the complainant cannot, as part of his prelimiuary proof, compel the defendant to disclose the names of Iris confidential customers to whom he has furnished articles alleged to be covered by the patent, but he may be required to give the name of one person to whom he has furnished such articles. The examiner has. uo power to rule on the admissibility of evidence, and defendant, when a witness before him, has a right, upon a question not free from doubt, to take the opinion of the court; and when he refuses to answer under advice of counsel and apparently in good faith, be should not be punished for contempt of court, even though he acted mistakenly.
