INVENTION. In patent law. The act or operation of finding out something new; the process of contriging and producing something not previously known or existing, by. the exercise of independent investigation and experiment. Also the article or contrivance or composition so invented. See Leldersdorf v. Flint, 15 Fed. Cas. 260; Smith v. Nichols, 21 Wall. 118, 22 L. Ed. 566; Hollister v. Manufacturing Co., 118 U. 8. 72, &