<P> The Court did not discuss the argument pressed for Gibbons by U.S. Attorney General Wirt that the federal patent laws preempted New York's patent grant to Fulton and Livingston . That question remained undecided for the next 140 years until the Supreme Court held in Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Stiffel Co. that federal patent law preempted similar state laws . </P> <Ul> <Li> The power to "regulate Commerce" is: </Li> </Ul> <Li> The power to "regulate Commerce" is: </Li> <P> the power to regulate; that is, to prescribe the rule by which commerce is to be governed . This power, like all others vested in Congress, is complete in itself, may be exercised to its utmost extent, and acknowledges no limitations, other than are prescribed in the Constitution . </P>

National government had exclusive power over interstate commerce