City of Elizabeth v. American Nicholson Pavement Co., 97 U.S. 126 (1878), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that while the public use of an invention more than one year prior to the inventor's application for a patent normally causes the inventor to lose his right to a patent, there is an exception to this rule for public uses for experimental purposes.

Although Nicholson had died before the commencement of the lawsuit, George T. Bigelow, representative of the American Nicholson Pavement Company brought the lawsuit on his behalf, alleging that the City of Elizabeth, New Jersey, George W. Tubbs, and the New Jersey Wood-Paving Co. had infringed on his patent.

Justice Bradley first examined the prior art in both the U.S. and England, and determined that nothing therein substantiated the defendants' claim of lack of novelty.

Nicholson put down a section of his new pavement on a turnpike in Boston, Massachusetts in 1848 in order to test its durability and the public's response to it.

Bradley went on to affirm the lower court's finding that the defendants had infringed Nicholson's patents, and that although the City of Elizabeth did not make any direct profit from the arrangement, the other two defendants had, and their amount of liability was not reduced by Nicholson's later assignment of the patent.