In the 1894 case National Cash Register Company v. Boston Cash Indicator and Recorder Company, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of National Cash Register (NCR). The dispute centered around patent rights for cash registers. NCR had obtained a reissue of its original patent to include certain features that were not present in the initial one. Boston Cash Indicator and Recorder Co., accused NCR of infringing on their own patents by incorporating these new elements into their design. However, the court found that there was no infringement as NCR's modifications were merely improvements upon existing technology rather than an imitation or duplication of another company’s patented invention.

In the dissenting opinion for the case between National Cash Register Company and Boston Cash Indicator and Recorder Company, it was argued that there were significant differences in design between the two cash registers. The justice believed that these differences were enough to distinguish them as separate inventions. He emphasized on how each machine worked differently, with one using a crank mechanism while the other used a key system. Furthermore, he pointed out that even if both machines served similar purposes of recording transactions and preventing thefts, this did not necessarily mean they infringed upon each other's patents because their mechanisms differed significantly. Therefore, he disagreed with majority’s decision which found patent infringement by Boston Cash Indicator and Recorder Company against National Cash Register Company.