This Supreme Court case involved a dispute between Tremaine and Hitchcock & Co. over the patent for a tremolo device. Tremaine had invented a tremolo device, which was a musical instrument accessory that produced a vibrating sound. He had obtained a patent for the device and had assigned the patent to Hitchcock & Co. Hitchcock & Co. then began to manufacture and sell the device, but Tremaine claimed that they had infringed upon his patent rights. The Supreme Court held that Tremaine was entitled to the patent rights for the tremolo device. The Court found that Tremaine had invented the device and that he had obtained a valid patent for it. The Court also found that Hitchcock & Co. had infringed upon Tremaine's patent rights by manufacturing and selling the device without his permission. The Court held that Tremaine was entitled to damages for the infringement and ordered Hitchcock & Co. to pay him for the damages.

In the case of Tremaine v. Hitchcock & Co., Justice Field delivered a dissenting opinion, arguing that the patent in question was not invalidated by prior art as determined by the majority opinion. He argued that while there were some similarities between the patented invention and those found in prior art, they did not render it unpatentable because they lacked any substantial similarity to each other. Furthermore, he noted that even if one assumed all of these similarities existed, it still would have been impossible for someone skilled in this field to create an identical device without infringing on Tremaine's patent rights. As such, Justice Field concluded that Tremaine should be allowed to retain his patent rights and receive compensation from Hitchcock & Co for their infringement upon them.