In the 1890 Supreme Court case, Case Manufacturing Company v. Soxman, the dispute centered around a patent infringement claim. The Case Manufacturing Company alleged that Soxman had infringed on their patented improvements in grain and seed separators used in harvesting machines. However, Soxman argued that he was using an older model of separator which did not incorporate these patented improvements. The court ruled in favor of Soxman after examining both models of separators and finding significant differences between them. They concluded that there was no evidence to support the claim made by Case Manufacturing Company about patent infringement as it could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt that the design used by Mr.Soxman incorporated or copied any elements from their new design.

The dissenting opinion in the case of Manufacturing Company v. Soxman argued that the majority's decision to uphold a lower court ruling, which found in favor of Soxman and against the manufacturing company on grounds of patent infringement, was incorrect. The dissenting justices believed that there were significant differences between Soxman's patented invention and the device produced by the manufacturing company, enough so to rule out any claims of patent infringement. They contended that these differences were not merely superficial or cosmetic but fundamental to how each device operated. Therefore, they felt it was unjust for Soxman to be able to claim exclusive rights over a broader range of devices than what his original patent covered simply because some elements might bear similarities with his own invention.