combination

In Criminal Law, an agreement between two or more people to act jointly for an unlawful purpose; a conspiracy. In patent law, the joining together of several separate inventions to produce a new invention.

An illegal combination in restraint of trade, defined under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, is one in which the conspirators agree expressly or impliedly to use devices such as price-fixing agreements to eliminate competition in a certain locality, e.g., when a group of furniture manufacturers refuse to deliver goods to stores that sell their goods for under a certain price.

In patent law a combination is distinguishable from an aggregation in that it is a joint operation of elements that produces a new result as opposed to a mere grouping together of old elements. This is important in determining whether or not something is patentable, since no valid patent can extend to an aggregation.

---

combination noun affiliation, aggregate, amalgamation, arrangement, assemblage, bringing tooether, coadjutorship, coalescence, coalition, collection, composition, compound, coniunctio, congregation, conjunction, consolidation, fusion, incorporation, junction, merger, pool, societas, unification, union
Associated concepts: combination in restraint of trade, combination to restrict competition and commerce, combination trademark, combined offense, combined property, illegal combination, patentable combination

---

See also: accession, affiliation, alliance, assemblage, association, band, cabal, cartel, centralization, coalescence, coalition, collection, compact, company, compilation, composition, concert, confederacy, connection, consolidation, consortium, conspiracy, contact, content, contribution, corporation, enterprise, federation, incorporation, integration, joinder, league, melange, merger, organization, partnership, pool, relationship, selection, sodality, solution, structure, substance, union, unity

---

COMBINATION. A union of different things. A patent may be taken out for a new combination of existing machinery, or machines. See 2 Mason, 112; and Composition of matter.
     2. By combination is understood, in a bad sense, a union of men for the purpose of violating the law.