In Parker and Whipple Company v. Yale Clock Company, the Supreme Court of the United States was asked to decide whether a patent for a clock mechanism was infringed upon by the defendant. The plaintiff, Parker and Whipple Company, had obtained a patent for a clock mechanism that was used in a clock they manufactured. The defendant, Yale Clock Company, had manufactured a similar clock mechanism that was used in their own clocks. The Supreme Court held that the defendant had infringed upon the plaintiff's patent. The Court found that the defendant had copied the plaintiff's clock mechanism and had used it in their own clocks. The Court also found that the defendant had not made any changes to the clock mechanism that would make it substantially different from the plaintiff's. Therefore, the Court held that the defendant had infringed upon the plaintiff's patent and ordered the defendant to pay damages to the plaintiff.

In Parker and Whipple Company v. Yale Clock Company, the Supreme Court was tasked with determining whether a patent for an electric clock mechanism held by the plaintiff, Parker and Whipple Company (P&W), had been infringed upon by defendant Yale Clock Company (YCC). The majority opinion found that YCC’s use of a similar mechanism did not constitute infringement because it was used in combination with other elements to create a different product than P&W's patented invention. However, Justice Field dissented from this decision on the grounds that YCC’s device constituted direct infringement as it embodied all of the essential features of P&W’s invention without any substantial change or improvement. He argued that even though YCC may have added additional components to their device, these additions were merely ornamental and did not alter its fundamental nature as an embodiment of P&W's patented technology. Therefore he concluded that such use should be considered infringing under existing patent law principles.