In the case of Sonnentheil v. Christian Moerlein Brewing Company in 1898, the U.S Supreme Court ruled on a dispute involving patent rights for an invention related to brewing beer. The plaintiff, Sonnentheil, claimed that he had sold his patented invention to another party who then transferred it to the defendant company without his consent or knowledge. He argued that this transfer was invalid and sought damages from the defendant for using his invention without permission. However, the court found no evidence supporting Sonnentheil's claim that he did not authorize or know about this transfer of rights at any point during its occurrence. Therefore, they held up previous rulings which stated that once a patent owner sells their right to an invention with no restrictions attached regarding further transfers of those rights; they can't later object if these are subsequently resold by others without their approval or knowledge.

In the dissenting opinion for Sonnentheil v. Christian Moerlein Brewing Company, Justice Harlan disagreed with the majority's decision to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds. He argued that there was a clear dispute between parties from different states and therefore federal courts had jurisdiction over it under diversity of citizenship rules. Furthermore, he believed that this case involved significant legal questions about contract law and business transactions which needed resolution by higher courts. In his view, dismissing such cases would undermine confidence in judicial system as it could leave important legal issues unresolved or inconsistently resolved across different state jurisdictions.